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creepy douchebaggery misogyny rape jokes rapey sexual harassment

Rape jokes: Not a good way to advertise vodka. Also, a non-apology is not a good way to apologize for using a rape joke to advertise vodka.

No thanks, Belvedere vodka. I think I’ll be going with pretty much ANY OTHER BRAND than you the next time I purchase vodka.

After a flurry of complaints online, Belvedere offered this “apology.”

Yeah, pretty sure “sorry if you were offended” does not count as a real apology. Neither does this: Belvedere Vodka, I’m sorry you’re so fucking clueless.

 

 

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emenihta
12 years ago

yes, let’s cleanse our palate of this putrid bulls**t!

http://www.bellagiopersians.com/clients/85218/5752803_org.jpg

🙂

TheNatFantastic
12 years ago

@Integral Stolichnya would be my recommendation if you’re looking for a widely available and decent commercial vodka. I, on the other hand, am both Eastern European and used to drinking paintstripper so have no such qualms.

abeegoesbuzz
abeegoesbuzz
12 years ago

I wonder if they’ll non-pologize to their fans who are fucking triggered by that ad.

If only I were privileged enough to be merely offended by an ad illustrating how terrifying rape is for the victim. Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, rape. Say, that’s a little offensive, you guys.

Instead, the ad kinda makes me want to crawl away and hide under blankets for the next week. Is it supposed to trigger me into a heavy alcoholic spell, where I drink Belvedere vodka to numb the pain and dull my memories? Is that it? It’s less of an advertising failure and more like a personhood failure. I feel like there should be some kind of remedial How to Be a Person Who Doesn’t Completely Suck All the Time class that whoever thought that ad up and approved it is obligated to take before they’re allowed back into polite society.

Anthony Zarat
12 years ago

Trust the boob fools to call “all men are rapists” jokes MISOGYNY.

This is MISANDRY. Obviously. Clearly. Unambiguously.

Bigots.

Snowy
Snowy
12 years ago

Integral, I like luksusowa. And it’s gluten free, too.

CassandraSays
CassandraSays
12 years ago

Grey Goose is right in the same ballpark as Belvedere in terms of taste and quality.

cloudiah
12 years ago

Antz, who the fuck is getting raped in that picture? Take your misandry and shove it, you fucking bigot.

Wetherby
Wetherby
12 years ago

Antz, where in the ad does it claim or even imply that all men are rapists?

Do you normally assume that people in ads represent their entire gender?

If so, your head must be a very strange and confusing place.

Snowy
Snowy
12 years ago

Antz lol. Oh hey, how your FOREIGN BRIDE doing?

Kyrie
Kyrie
12 years ago

Antz, who the fuck is getting raped in that picture? Take your misandry and shove it, you fucking bigot.

This.
Plus the fact that you need to take a quick look at implications. When society say “men raping women is a problem” the conclusion is always “therefore women must live in constant fear, not wear clothes that might attract rapists, not drink because you’re gonna be raped, you should carry a weapon and learn karate, and not be out late,…” It’s not “therefore men should wear a blinder or they’ll jump on pretty girls, not go out at night so the streets are safe,…”
When a woman look at that picture, it might increase this little permanent fear: will I be raped by a stranger? Will someday a partner not take a no for a no? What do I risk if I go into that crowd, what are the chance I’ll get assaulted?*
When you watch it, what do you think? Do you wonder if all the sudden you’ll go rape someone? Do you fear you won’t be able to restrain yourself?


* actually that apply to everybody who, upon looking at this kind of image, feel this kind of feeling. Which I think, will be primarily women, but not necessarily all of them and not only them.

Crumbelievable
Crumbelievable
12 years ago

Yes, how dare we find misogyny in an ad that makes light of women being raped. The poor menz are the victims here. Idiot.

Shadow
Shadow
12 years ago

Re: Vodka

Bought some Pravda vodka for New Years, it’s surprisingly smooth tasting. And you have the staple of Grey Goose. Ciroc is also decent, though I was so hammered by the time I got around to tasting it that I may as well have been drinking engine oil, so take it with a grain of salt

Crumbelievable
Crumbelievable
12 years ago

I’ve never had Absolut, but their ad campaigns are actually funny and not based around some pathetic rape jokes so that’s gotta mean something

lauralot
lauralot
12 years ago

Antz, shut the fuck up.

cloudiah
12 years ago

The most pressing problem in the world is that no one respects men’s rights.

ozymandias42
12 years ago

AntZ, let’s think for a moment. So you disagree with us about whether this is misogyny or misandry! However, is the important, bad bit here:

a) The people who agree with you that the ad sucks but disagree about why?
b) The people who actually ran the ad you find misandric?

It’s a), right? So shouldn’t you write to them, tell them it’s offensive and why, and stop buying their vodka? Or at least call THEM the bigots.

BlackBloc
BlackBloc
12 years ago

I’d break edge just so that I could boycott this brand by buying another brand of vodka…

Ok, not really.

Bostonian
12 years ago

NatFantastic, that is my new favorite tumblr!

felixBC
felixBC
12 years ago

I don’t understand how people can look at this ad, and then start rabbiting on about ‘giving them the benefit of the doubt’. She saw a spider! He’s just tickling her! Someone just took a silly stockphoto and stuck a caption on it–they didn’t mean it!

No. A team of advertisers got together and did this on purpose. They made a joke about rape, with the implication that whoever drinks this stuff is going to get oral sex, preferably roughly instead of smoothly, ie without consent and with violence and fear. And I’m betting they did a photo shoot specifically for this.

Think there was a single woman in the room for any of the meetings about this campaign? Let alone a rape victim?

Here’s the site you shouldn’t read the comments on: http://www.thejanedough.com/belvedere-rape-ad/

Oh, and here’s the advertising company:
Last Exit Agency, NYC http://www.lastexit.tv/
Think Belvedere will still be shown off on their site for much longer?

Xanthë
12 years ago

This is jaw-droppingly awful. As is the stupidity of AntZ, but that’s the usual demonstration of the lack of basic empathy and other human virtues routinely found in the MRM.

Fortunately I’ve always had different taste in vodka and will make sure to add Belvedere to my mental “Do not buy, even if it’s the only brand available” checklist.

Rutee Katreya
12 years ago

Zarat, does the planet you live on occasionally receive signals from Earth-212?

Crumbelievable
Crumbelievable
12 years ago

@Cloudiah:

David needs to use that picture ASAP.

pujeemuhs
pujeemuhs
12 years ago

felixBC – They took a screen shot from another unfunny dudebro rape joke video and then put the extra-rapish tagline on it. I think it might have been a crap parody. Still, no. I don’t think Belvedere has any women working for them in any influential capacity.

I’m sorry but dudes aren’t funny. They have no eye for the absurd. All they do is regurgitate bumper stickers.

felixBC
felixBC
12 years ago

@pujeemuhs “They took a screen shot from another unfunny dudebro rape joke video and then put the extra-rapish tagline on it. I think it might have been a crap parody.”

Really? Did they leave an actual frat boy intern in charge for the overnight shift on Facebook+Twitter?

pujeemuhs
pujeemuhs
12 years ago

@felixBC – I don’t know. I just saw the video linked on another blog. There’s a convoluted story to get the woman on the guy’s lap and then it’s all about his boner and he ejaculates at the moment the woman’s mother snaps the photo. HERRRP!
I assume some fanboy or ad agency “creative” put it together and Belvedere’s social media brohem put it twitter and facebook like a big douche.