reversal of Manifest Destiny

17 Responses to "reversal of Manifest Destiny"

• Comment by: Sharon

  1 04/8/08 3:29 AM | Comment Link |

  Can someone exlain to me how this could be considered offensive to the US? It seems to me that US Americans would rather forget the past and reject anything that would indicate that Mexicans have any right to be in the USA. I think Mexicans should be affronted that US Americans are offended by the ad- the reaction seems a particularly imperialistic to me.
  (Honestly- try to eplain it to me, I actually am curious. I am not an American but am married to a Latin American so I probably see things very differently!).

• Comment by: Benjamin

  2 04/8/08 9:22 AM | Comment Link |

  Sharon,

  Can someone exlain to me how this could be considered offensive to the US

  I don’t think it would be super fair for me to try to explain, since my reaction to it is to make sure I always buy Absolut whenever I need vodka from now–It made me smile hugely. I think it would be more fair for someone who was actually offended to explain why.

  An Australian I know said, in response to this: “It’s offensive to Americans because Americans have a sense of utter entitlement.”

  On another note, my hometown newspaper ran a story on Sunday about what life is like for so called “illegal” Mexican immigrants who, having lived in the U.S. for years, get deported back to Mexico. The story focuses on just one family out of the 870,000 Mexicans deported last year alone. Ann Reyes had lived in Seattle for 18 years, working as an agricultural worker and a maid. Her two daughters, Julie, 13, and Sharise, 6, were born here. The article says
  

  Ten months after she was picked up by immigration officers in an early-morning raid of her Burien home and soon deported to Mexico, Reyes - jobless and broke - struggles to eke out the barest existence in the dirt-poor barrios of one of the world’s biggest and most crowded cities.

  I find that a lot more offensive than the absolut ad.

• Comment by: Benjamin

  3 04/8/08 9:28 AM | Comment Link |

  Oh–Sharon. There seems to be a bit of a discussion about the ad on this page–with various people talking a little bit about why they were offended. Including:

  I see you put about as much thought into the ad as you did making your terrible drink. What a disgusting misrepresentation of the historical record. Living in CA I grow tired of hearing this “this was our land” argument. The land was not stolen. America purchased the land from Mexico having defeated them in the war. Along the same lines, why not create an ad for the Native Americans showing the entire continent as theirs? I wonder how Absolut would like an absolute boycott of their product from the American populous?

• Comment by: Herb

  4 04/8/08 11:53 AM | Comment Link |

  My wife is Mexican-American, She was born and raised in southern New Mexico, 80 miles from the border. She is proud of her heritage, both Mexican and American. Obviously with the conditions in much of Mexico the way they are, they are glad to be Americans. Having said that, they have been where they are since before the borders moved. It was the borders that moved, not them.
  Ive often wondered how it would be like if the two countries just combined anyway. Name it whatever you want. What would be the advantages? Disadvantages?

• Comment by: Martin Gugino

  5 04/8/08 12:59 PM | Comment Link |

  Manifest Destiny, 21st Century.

• Comment by: Staci

  6 04/8/08 1:58 PM | Comment Link |

  Oh, I’m glad to see they included most of Oregon as part of Mexico! Lots of cranberries are grown in Wisconsin and toward the NE part of the US, but they are also grown in Oregon. This way we don’t have to import cranberry juice from a foreign country to mix with Absolut :-)

• Comment by: Staci

  7 04/8/08 2:13 PM | Comment Link |

  So I thought this was pretty funny until I saw some comments on news articles related to this where people said some very scary things. There are people who totally believe crazy, crazy stuff - not just a little wacko, but truly delusional.

  Absolut Vodka released a statement:

  “We are sorry if we offended anyone. This was not our intention. We will try to explain. Though you may not agree, I hope you understand.”…“We have a variety of executions running in countries worldwide, and each is germane to that country and that population. This particular ad, which ran in Mexico, was based upon historical perspectives and was created with a Mexican sensibility. 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. Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Mexico may feel was more ideal.”…“Obviously, this ad was run in Mexico, and not the US — that ad might have been very different.”

  I think this was a much nicer way of reminding people that not everything is about them than I might have chosen. Ads are about getting people to remember a brand’s name. People buy brands they remember even if they don’t remember why they know the name. I’m a blonde; should I believe that beer companies are advocating that I should belong to some slobby, couch potato sports junky just because one guzzles their product in an ad and a blonde appears on his lap?

• Comment by: Sharon McLennan

  8 04/8/08 3:23 PM | Comment Link |

  Benjamin- I checked that page. Wow. I couldn’t keep reading it. Apologies to all the lovely Americans here but those comments just reinforced every stereotype I’ve heard of xenophobic US Americans.

  Obviously, this ad was run in Mexico, and not the US — that ad might have been very different.

  The only thing I find offensive about the ad is this- and it’s the same thing I find offensive about advertising in general. Absolut is not trying to make a political statement, they want to sell Vodka and they will use whatever images/ ideas they think will work in a given location. As this statement says, the message would be quite different in the US, US Americans would be the ones laughing and most likely someone else would be insulted. Despite all those bottles of Absolut going down the drain, the company must be gleefully happy with all the publicity, after all, thats what the goal of advertising is all about.

• Comment by: benjamin ady

  9 04/8/08 8:24 PM | Comment Link |

  Despite all those bottles of Absolut going down the drain, the company must be gleefully happy with all the publicity, after all, thats what the goal of advertising is all about.

  Indeed. I think Donald Trump said “There’s no such thing as overexposure”

  Xenophobia is a fear or contempt of that which is foreign or unknown, especially of strangers or foreign people.[1] It comes from the Greek words ξένος (xenos), meaning “foreigner,” “stranger,” and φόβος (phobos), meaning “fear.” The term is typically used to describe fear or dislike of foreigners or in general of people different from oneself.

  You may be right that we Americans have somewhat perfected the art. But that hardly means we have a monopoly on it.

  I was watching the movie Gallipoli the other night with my very favorite person, and I kept making comments (which makes her crazy in general when we’re watching movies). Like “Why are Aussie guys signing up to go half way around the world to kill Turks, on the Turk’s own home soil, on behalf of the British?”. My favorite person was *very* unhappy about my comments.

  Xenophobia comes into play there, and everywhere, I guess.

• Comment by: David H

  10 04/8/08 9:16 PM | Comment Link |

  I am an American. I don’t drink vodka. I am appalled at the attitude of many of my country-people who decided to comment at some of the linked sites. Their responses to this ad says more about the people of the United States than anything the ad can say. Racist, self-obsessed, myopic would be a few of the nicer things that could be said. For many in the rest of the world this will simply confirm all of their worst thoughts about Americans. We’re pissing and moaning over a meaningless advertisement while thousands die daily in other countries because of American crimes of commission and /or omission. If they want to get upset, they should do it over something important — something that really matters. If they must be red-neck, ugly American, ethnocentric idiots — couldn’t they do it quietly?

• Comment by: Helen

  11 04/9/08 7:44 AM | Comment Link |

  I learned UK history since that’s where I grew up - I didn’t even know the border used to be where it is on that map. Wow.

• Comment by: benjamin ady

  12 04/9/08 1:23 PM | Comment Link |

  If they must be red-neck, ugly American, ethnocentric idiots — couldn’t they do it quietly?

  Wouldn’t that create a bit of an oxymoron?

  From wikipedia’s redneck article

  Fiercely independent, and frequently belligerent, people characterized as rednecks perpetuated old Celtic ideas of honor and clanship. This sometimes led to blood feuds such as the Hatfield-McCoy feud in West Virginia and Kentucky.

  Also from that article, apparently we can loosely translate the American “redneck” to “bogan” in Australia/New Zealand.

  It’s interesting because of course there are those who use the word to refer to their own in-group–thus not in a pejorative sense. My own delightful sister sometimes uses it in this sense.

  But then of course my Aunt Liela, who recently said she wouldn’t vote for Obama because he’s black, and woulnd’t vote for Clinton because she’s a woman, also uses it in this sense.

  Helen

  You should see the map pre-1600 from the native American perspective.

• Comment by: Julie Clawson

  13 04/9/08 1:27 PM | Comment Link |

  since my reaction to it is to make sure I always buy Absolut whenever I need vodka from now–

  same reaction here! :)

• Comment by: Helen

  14 04/9/08 2:57 PM | Comment Link |

  Benjamin wrote:
  

  Helen

  You should see the map pre-1600 from the native American perspective.

  It was all Native American wasn’t it? I knew about that but not about the Mexican-American war.

  But please correct me if I’m wrong.

• Comment by: David H

  15 04/9/08 4:39 PM | Comment Link |

  Wouldn’t that create a bit of an oxymoron?

  I would take the oxy variety over the type of moron I found all too frequently commenting on this ad (definition: a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment). Can’t I dream of a world where the rabidly self-centered wear muzzles?

• Comment by: benjamin ady

  16 04/9/08 6:05 PM | Comment Link |

  It was all Native American wasn’t it? I knew about that but not about the Mexican-American war.

  But please correct me if I’m wrong.

  Actually, I guess at some point it was … at least partially Mormon? But I digress.

  Actually, I didn’t know *either*. I mean I had the vague *sense* that Mexico used to own California, but I’d never read about the facts of the case, nor seen a map demonstrating. So I was rather surprised too.

• Comment by: benjamin ady

  17 04/9/08 6:06 PM | Comment Link |

  Can’t I dream of a world where the rabidly self-centered wear muzzles?

  There’s a beautiful dream.

  I’m trying to think of the e-equivalent of a muzzle …

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