A vodka company created a nationalist advertisement for the Mexican marketplace. The internets allowed an American audience to gaze upon said advertisement. And voila! An opportunity for anxiety, anger and shock to pour out on the different sides of all the issues our neighbor to the South conjures up: the growth of the Latino population, illegal immigration concerns, imperialism, the presence of the Spanish language in public square and so on.

I certainly dread the idiotic conflations that seem to be dominating the side boycotting the vodka company. Conflations such as confusing Latin America with Mexico. Or arguing that American Latinos are essentially an un-meltable mass of recent arrivals somehow magically coordinating to take back the Southwest for the Mexican government (I guess I didn’t get that memo.) And ultimately, I am just not persuaded that a liquor-selling multinational thinks enhanced profitability will result from actually fomenting a war or domestic revolt in the world’s largest economy. They care about $, as they should.

Unfortunately, the focus on the identity politics overlooks a more subtly wicked element of the advertisement.

There is something utterly disingenuous about a Swedish vodka brand playing on Mexican nationalism with an ad that features English copy (!). I mean come on, does the company really care about the aspirations of the average Mexican citizen? I sincerely doubt it. They do care about sales, though. Sure, the add is tongue-in-cheek and we should have a sense of humor about it. But there is definitely something unappealing about a corporation exploiting the real resentments present in developing country as a way of establishing brand appeal. It’s socially irresponsible given that there are many other ways to establish that appeal and provide healthy return to investors without relying on mobilizing nationalism. It is particularly disappointing given that this same brand has featured exciting and innovative creative in the past. I don’t like it when American truck makers deploy nationalism to cover-up for sub-par products. It just wreaks of a company getting defeated in the marketplace. So it’s unfortunate that brands sometimes choose that set of emotions to manipulate, especially since I doubt it is rarely the optimal path by which to enhance brand equity or profitability.

Specifically, a lot of the people in their target Mexican market are wary, tired, and suspicious of the use of nationalism. Let’s not forget that until recently, Mexico was ruled by an authoritarian oligarchy that often used nationalist sentiments to deflect corruption and policy failures. It just seems like an ad a PRIista would have conjured up in the late 80s. As you can tell, my initial reaction to it was that it was a clumsy and manipulative attempt at street cred.

And maybe there is a lesson here for how we engage Americans concerned about immigration (of all kinds) because of their dwindling economic fortunes…we should shift the conversation from emotional identity politics and talk about how (1) we create institutional arrangements that fairly share the prosperity created by existing corporations, as well as (2) further enhance access to capital to facilitate competition, especially against disingenuous multinationals that have to rely on base emotion because of sub-par products.

UPDATE: The vodka company apologizes.