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Belvedere vodka's rape joke - holy crap this ad is so offensive!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/03/23/social-media-idiocy-of-the-day-belevedere-vodkas-rape-joke/
Social Media Idiocy Of The Day: Belvedere Vodka's Rape Joke
Update: The company issued an actual apology late last night; see end of post.
On Friday afternoon, Belvedere Vodka, which has healthy followings on Twitter (10,263 followers) and Facebook (916,970 fans), posted this ad on both of those accounts (via Shani Hilton):
James PoulosTextual translation: A terrified woman being grabbed by a gleeful man with a catch phrase ? ?Unlike some people, Belvedere always goes down smoothly? ? implying she will be forced to perform oral sex. This obviously sparked outrage.
Judging from Topsy?s record of the posting time, it was taken down from both social media accounts within an hour. Of course deletion on the Internet is near impossible and many people captured screenshots, realizing how outrageous and retractable it was. This frat-boy humor was a terrible judgment call by someone in Belvedere?s marking department given the general unfunniness of rape jokes compounded by the sensitivity around the role alcohol plays in sexual assault.
The deletion of the post from Facebook and Twitter is evidence that Belvedere Vodka realizes that now, but it has not followed up with a tweet or Facebook status update apologizing. (It really should.) Update ? Half-hearted apology has been tweeted: ?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.?
?FAIL. Never touching your product ever again,? tweeted one person in response to the pseudo-apology.
In Belvedere?s self description on Twitter, it urges consumers to ?Trust Your Instincts.? Unfortunately, the instincts of the marketing person behind this ad were not the ones a company would want from its social media voice to the world. Expect a firing before happy hour.
Another Update: There?s no news of a firing, nor pointing of fingers at Belvedere?s digital ad agency Last Exit Strategies, but Belvedere Vodka did issue an actual apology late Friday night. Here?s a statement they sent me via email:
I am Jason Lundy, SVP of Global Marketing for Belvedere.
Unfortunately a Facebook & Twitter posting was made today that has offended many of our fans and followers ? and indeed the people who work here at Belvedere. The post is absolutely inconsistent with our values and beliefs and in addition to removing the offensive post we are committed to making sure that something like this doesn?t happen again. As an expression of our deep disappointment and regret, we are making a charitable donation to a women?s support cause. We deeply apologize to our fans & followers.
A much better apology than the first one. I?m still trying to get details from the company about which women?s group will benefit from this and how it happened in the first place.
Re: Belvedere vodka's rape joke - holy crap this ad is so offensive!
You have GOT to befucking kidding me with this.
Agreed. There is no way someone involved in company marketing could be this much of an idiot...right?
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DGod I hope this is the case. Not that I am any less offended, but at least that would mean that they actually REALIZED it was offensive.
Is it weird that I'm most shocked that this came from Belvedere Vodka? They're a reasonably high end label...if it was Smirnoff, I'd totally think this was a shock value publicity stunt, but Belvedere's always marketed itself as "classy".
Its only because I know there are nice marketing people on this board that I'm resisting this softball.