Follow up on Bacardi issue

[rumtastique]

By the way, Bacardi did offer an "apology."


text from Jezebel.com:

Yesterday, we received an email from Bacardi explaining that the "Get An Ugly Girlfriend" site advertising Bacardi Breezer was created by an Israeli affiliate and shut down by Bacardi last year. The company has apologized and taken it down.

Sean-Patrick M. Hillman, Executive Vice President of Corbin & Associates, a public relations agency, emailed us on behalf of Bacardi USA, Inc. He wrote:

Thank you for taking the time to post your story on Bacardi Breezer.

The campaign you are referring to ran in 2008 for two months in Israel. Even though Bacardi Breezer is not sold or distributed in the United States, we immediately notified the appropriate Bacardi affiliate and had this website shut down.

Bacardi proudly celebrates diversity and we do not endorse the views of this site. We sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by this site and thank you for bringing it to our attention.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at anytime should you have any questions.

Though the site was still up last week, it has now been removed entirely. The Washington City Paper blog "The Sexist" reports that yesterday, the campaign's Facebook group had about 100 followers and dozens of negative comments about the advertising execs who created it - one tipster says that interestingly, the copywriter and art director on the ad are women - but the group has disappeared as well.

--end copied text, from http://jezebel.com/5299746/bacardi-apologizes-takes-down-awful-get-an-ugly-girlfriend-site

Still, I think that is a LAME ASS apology, for an assortment of reasons, chiefly that I don't think you can disclaim responsibility for your own products advertising, even if it is "an affiliate" - especially in a web-based international culture. Also, Bacardi Breezers are sold in the US, though they are less popular here than overseas, so I call a giant pile of bull on the whole thing.


for the tl;dr crowd, the summary is: bacardi issues lame apology to cover asses, pulls site, talks piles of crap. I shall continue to try all the other lovely rums that people have suggested to me, as the bitter taste in my mouth shall take some time (and a lot of rum) to go away.

Comments

[reteva.livejournal.com]

I don't go overseas until the 20th of July and then just for two weeks. Then I'm back for a month to get everything squared away and to bid my fond farewells, etc. I reserved an apartment in Yokohama for starting on the 1st of September. When I go over in July, I'll hopefully get everything ironed out about that.

It'd be really nice to arrive on the 1st of September and just go straight home.

How long are you in the Netherlands? And did you and my mom ever get the tulip details straightened out?

[foxxydancr.livejournal.com]

I'm there for two months (jul 2-sep 1). whee!

I emailed your mom, but never heard back from her.