Guerrilla Tip - Watch Your Brand Placement

The marketing campaign of Sweden's Absolut Vodka is a success story that would be the envy of many brands. The venerable distillery has gained unparalleled brand recognition since the debut of the first "Absolut Perfection" ad in 1980. Their distinctive advertising themes and guerrilla public relations stunts (such as handing out limited edition, hand-painted promotional t-shirts) have won them a number of advertising and public relations awards. The distillery has even managed to make concerns over global climate change into something fashionable with their latest eco-friendly promotion. Yet, all the consumer goodwill they have built up may have come tumbling down, due to a major product placement blunder.

In this age of rapid information dissemination, an advertising misstep can come back to haunt you in a blink of an eye and this is exactly what happened with an ad campaign targeted at Mexican consumers. The ad in question features a stylized early 19th century map showing chunks of the United States as being part of Mexico. While never intended to be viewed by an American audience, the ad has nevertheless gained widespread attention due to social networks such as Digg. The resulting backlash may have irrevocably damaged the company's reputation with some consumers. Many outraged and offended Americans perceived the ad as an anti-American attack, disparaging the nation's immigration policies -- some have even gone so far as to call for boycotts of the vodka brand.

For all the companies that may be reading...let that stand as a lesson on how easily a brand's image can be destroyed and consider carefully how ALL of your potential audiences may react to your own promotional campaigns.