Take a beach stroll with Sally…
When I checked for updates to the Shameless blog this morning, I was treated to a disgusting bit of misogyny via Mir’s post on the new Bacardi Breezer ad campaign. This campaign, with the tagline “Get Yourself An Ugly Girlfriend” is one of the most offensive, sexist attempt at promoting alcohol that I have ever seen, which is saying a lot, considering the general grossness of alcohol advertising. I’m not sure how Bacardi thought it could convince women to drink Breezers by insulting their looks, but, well… that’s what they’re trying to do. Certainly the best way to sell a product is to remind women of all the things they hate about their bodies, right? That makes total sense.
I have been looking for an excuse to do some more feminist adbusting since Your Mom Had Groupies, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Thus, I present a new ad campaign that I like to call Take A Beach Stroll With Sally (Click the image to make it bigger):
Once again, I’m putting out the call for contributions, because adbusting is more fun in groups! Who would you like to join you at the beach or at the mall? Make your own ad or just leave a comment telling me how you would bust this gross ad campaign. If you have a contribution, please submit it here and I’ll make a big post with all the responses!
Or, if you don’t feel like spending your day messing around with Photoshop, you can just tell Bacardi exactly how you feel about their new campaign.
EDIT: Sources in Israel (oooh, I love saying that) have informed me that this is an old campaign, dating from 2007 or 2008. They are not sure if it was dropped by the company or even if it was ever officially used by Bacardi. McCann Digital is an Internet exclusive ad agency known for its disgustingly offensive campaigns. McCann recently listed the ad campaign on Best TV Now, dating it as being from this month and listing the client that commissioned it as Tempo.
Possibly, and this is entirely my speculation, it was going to be submitted to the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Does anyone else have any clues? I, for one, would love to hear from Bacardi on the matter. Adbusting remains very satisfying, whatever the response.
EDIT: McCann has pulled the promotional minisite down and removed it from their website! Heh, feminists either crashed their site or… they feared the bad press. I wonder…
EDIT: An apology (Corporations apologize? I have never heard of such a thing!) from Bacardi can be seen in the comments. Also, the lovely Mir submitted her own ad-busted version of this ad, which I think is hilarious (and suffering from far fewer rage issues than my own:
5 comments
Brilliant! I nearly peed myself laughing at this mock advert!
We wish to thank all of you who have written us about a past promotional campaign for Bacardi Breezer.
As a Company and as individuals we are also angered and dismayed that such a campaign was ever created and we have taken immediate action to stop it as it violated our stringent global marketing principles that we firmly support.
By way of explanation, but by no means an excuse, Bacardi never sponsored nor developed this promotion. But we understand it is our brand and our reputation and you are our consumers. We are also embarrassed that we didn’t catch this breach sooner. We have been urgently looking into this matter to make sure this type of activity is never repeated.
What we do know is that a third-party developed and activated this brief campaign in one small market more than a year ago without our clearance. When we discovered this promotion, we instructed our distributor to shut it down as it did not comply with our global marketing standards. We are now urgently looking into the reasons why this program was recently reposted on the internet. In markets where Bacardi does not have a corporate presence, we are represented by third parties; in this case a distributor and its advertising agency, but they must adhere to our stringent marketing principles, which clearly this campaign did not.
When Bacardi found out about this recent reposting, we immediately notified the agency and distributor to shutdown the website.
Bacardi proudly celebrates diversity and we do not endorse the views of this site or the campaign, as it is offensive and completely inappropriate. We sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by this campaign and thank you, our consumers for bringing it to our attention.
Sincerely,
Bacardi Limited
Bacardi, you’re going to have to do better than that to counteract the publicity you’re getting from this. I’m thinking a nice big donation to some women’s charities would be a start.
Hopefully corporate heads are rolling at that ad agency in Israel.
[...] but there’s a typically long and pointless thread about it on Jezebel (don’t ask), and Michelle Koenig-Schwartz has done a set of [...]
Shame on you Bacardi.
Women-bashing is not sexy. Nor does it make me want to drink your booze.
Nice Adbusting Michelle.
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