Absolutely Ridiculous!

Well, the "In An Absolut World" ad saga we posted about last week has come to an end.

Absolut vodka pulls ad showing California in Mexico

Although it was not shown in the United States, U.S. media outlets picked up on the ad, and after a barrage of complaints, Absolut's maker said on Sunday the ad campaign would cease.

Defending the campaign last week, Absolut maker Vin & Spirit said the ad was created "with a Mexican sensibility" and was not meant for the U.S. market.

"In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues," a spokeswoman wrote on Absolut's Web site.

"Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Mexico may feel was more ideal," she wrote.

Absolut's blog cite has received more than a thousand comments since the ad campaign was launched a few weeks ago, with many calling for boycotts of the Swedish company.

Complaints indeed.

Mostly from the Right Wing Freakshow, led by Michelle "Stalkin' Malkin, who fired up her crystal ball, sending out in a frenzy, her Flying Monkeys to go and harass people at the Ad Agency that created the most entertaining advertisement.

This led John Cole, over on Balloon Juice to fire back;

Apparently unaware that corporations compete in a global market and sometimes engage in niche advertising, occasionally placing different ads in different countries, our frothing lunatics are in high dudgeon over this grave insult to white America. Sometimes, the treachery is so bad that these evil America hating corporations even use foreign languages in their commercials and in their advertising!

This, of course, means that Queen Outrage herself has kicked into high gear, with numerous posts on the matter, inevitably leading to the type of citizen activism that is much approved among this crowd - harassing people who have jobs.

And Sean Hackbarth, over on The American Mind.

Wrapping it up is Laura Martinez, the blogger whose post of the Absolut Ad was discovered by the nitwits,

Writing this week, in Ad Age, Martinez penned "I Created an Absolut Ruckus; How a Country-Specific Ad Crossed the Border";

The story behind such brouhaha began on Sunday, March 16, when, sitting by my mother's sick bed in a Mexico City hospital, I started browsing Quién, the Grupo Expansión-owned ultimate source for celebrity and socialite gossip. Buried in a sea of uninteresting pictures and pseudo-articles, I found the following Absolut Vodka ad from the series "In an Absolut World."

It was exactly 11 days after my mom's death that I recalled the ad, found it still in my purse and posted it to my blog with a small note on "perfect worlds" and "absolute" worlds.

The Absolut experience has left me with a sweet and sour taste in my mouth. On the one hand I was happily surprised at the power of blogging and how an apparently inoffensive ad I cut out from a Mexican magazine incensed such passions. On the other, I realized how intolerance, stupidity and ignorance can quickly give raise to hatred and racism, a dangerous combination in these days and times ...

Stupidity and Ignorance ... Hatred and Racism

I guess, for whichever part of the world the Bush Grindhouse doesn't alienate, the lunatic believers, the dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds, will swoop in and mop up

Siempre Absolut!