Belvedere celebrates its vodka’s superior drinkability — but a new ad for the liquor producer is hardly in good taste.
The ad, which reads “Unlike some people, Belvedere goes down smoothly,” got its share of outraged reactions on Twitter, where the ad first appeared as part of a new marketing campaign. Featuring a prominent photo of a man grabbing a terrified-looking woman from behind, the not-so-subtle double entendre about the vodka’s taste ended up sounding like sexual assault to most that saw the ad.
Belvedere ended up taking the ad down within an hour, reported Forbes, but its efforts to calm those who thought the ad made light of rape and sexual assault were hardly satisfying. Belvedere’s first attempt at an apology fell short of its mark:
Belvedere Vodka @belvederevodka We apologize to any of our fans who were offended by our recent tweet. We continue to be an advocate of safe and responsible drinking.
The non-apology drew its own share of ire, with many assuming the vodka maker failed to fully appreciate the offensiveness of its ad’s message and instead put the burden of misunderstanding on its viewers.
The senior staff of the company eventually issued a fuller apology, saying the ad was “absolutely inconsistent with our values and beliefs,” and promising to donate to a women’s support charity. It was a step in the right direction, but the company stumbled slightly in their execution.
When asked by a New York Observer reporter what charity would receive its donation, Belvedere’s president mentioned RAINN (the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network) — but the link he included took the reporter to the personal Facebook page of a Singaporean Facebook member named Rain Chan. The link, to be sure, was fixed in a subsequent email (the result of a copy and paste error), and directed users to RAINN’s official Facebook page.
Though the ad’s inflammatory nature is hard to forget, RAINN appreciated the overture in the end: “Nice to see a company that not only undoes its mistake but looks for a way to do good afterwards,” reads a post on the organization’s Facebook page. But will the tasteless ad cause a nasty hangover for the company?
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http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/03/25/...#ixzz1qBi7GECI