A reader cc’d me on his email to Absolute in response to that ad I linked to yesterday:

Mr. Moron, I like it when product manufacturers stay out of politics and concentrate on their product. You crossed the line showing a map where the Southwest US is part of Mexico. I can overlook the politics of that statement without hesitation. Just like I can bypass Absolut for another vodka. I own and run the website http://www.coolcocktail.com. Over 5% of my cocktail recipes contain the term Absolute in the ingredient list. Please excuse me for not writing more, but I need to remove the Absolute from those recipes and replace it with Stoli. Thank you for your time, Charles Hale

Update: And from the Thanks For Sharing file:

I was curious about whether an American vodka company could run ads in Russia, Germany or one of the Scandanavian countries showing Sweden, or a part of Sweden, as a part of Greater Germany/Russia, etc. Interestingly, though – you can’t do it – There aren’t any neighbors of Sweden who used to have part of Sweden. It’s pretty-much been independent since it was settled by tall, odd-sounding blonde people. I haven’t liked Sweden since the summer after high school – when my girlfriend dumped me in favor of some obnoxious Swedish atheist communist who kept staring at me when I met him and who thought that the USSR wasn’t such a bad place because they had great social services. But I don’t drink Absolut, anyway.