Slicing and dicing the world, with maps

The marketing folks at Absolut must have been enjoying a few bottles of their own vodka when they decided the way to sell their product was with a map of the U.S. drawn at a time when much of the West belonged to the government south of the border. The "Absolut World" ad featuring a much larger Mexico and a reduced Estados Unidos could hardly have been more neatly calculated to dredge up Mexican resentments and jab at U.S. fears.

April 9, 2008