Wodka's Hunts Point "Hooker" Ad Angers The Bronx

The online version of the ad in question (Wodka).

[Update Below] Low-budget vodka company Wodka has really figured out how to make its advertising budget go the extra mile with a little controversy. First they got in trouble last holiday season for their allegedly anti-Semitic "Christmas Quality, Hanukkah Pricing" billboard and now they've gone and pissed off some Bronx residents with a prostitution-related billboard over the Bruckner Expressway in Hunts Point.

The problem for Bronx Community Board 2 is that they have been trying for years to persuade people that Hunts Point isn't just a place to pick up prostitutes—and then Wodka goes and puts up a sign that reads "Escort Quality, Hooker Pricing." As Rafael Salamanca Jr., district manager for CB 2, told the News: "When I saw it I almost fell out of my seat. That’s an inappropriate billboard given what the Hunts Point community has gone through in the past."

According to the creators of the ad, they recognize people are pissed, but are standing by it (after all—free advertising!). But a lawyer for Van Wagner, which owns the billboard, says "We have reached out to our advertiser to see whether we can remedy the situation," so we'll see.

Meanwhile, we have to wonder, what's next for Wodka's clearly successful "X Quality, Y Pricing" campaign? Maybe a billboard outside of Madison Square Garden with the tag "American Quality, Taiwanese Pricing?"

Update: That was fast. The offending sign was reportedly taken down promptly today after the media picked up on the story. Which makes sense, Wodka already got more than its money worth on that billboard.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Garth Johnston in Food on February 22, 2012 11:41 AM

Comments [rss]

zombiebob

I think it is funny as hell, but not as amusing as all you toolios whinging about it

Violette Retancourt

That's a goddamned good ad. I've been bitching for years about liquor ads trying to sell me image rather than booze and frequently say that I'll run right out and buy the first brand whose slogan is "Liquor Brand X - It tastes good and will fuck you up." This is pretty darn close.

JumpRope

This ad is also marring Chelsea with 2 billboards on 7th Ave. and 27th. It's offensive in Hunt's Point, but it's pretty reprehensible to make light of the economy in sex workers regardless. I'm hoping these billboards are taken down here too.

hoopjumper

i don't remember what graphic went with it (maybe the lamb, maybe not) but an ad with for this vodka with the same copy was on a billboard above broome street for awhile.

birdtird

The sex trade is hilarious

Kingramen

Yeah. The only question anybody should have with this is: "What is up with the LAMB"??

WZA

I think it's also a PSA for not eating meat. A lamb convinced Lisa Simpson to go vegetarian.

Peanut_Butter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Fluffhead513

Okay... what is with the lamb. Their vodka makes you so faded you order a lamb escort/hooker?

SFNY

And it's iconically racist, too, what with the sombrero.

Van Wagner Communications
800 Third Avenue, 28th Floor New York, NY 10022
Tel: 212.699.8400
Fax: 212.986.0927
saleseast@vanwagner.com

Peanut_Butter

Please explain how that is racist.

SFNY

The headline bags on the community for its struggles against prostitution, but the sombrero is reductively referring to the 76% of the Hunts Point population that is Hispanic. Thankfully, I have no idea what the sheep implies.

Peanut_Butter

It's not racist. It's possible that they are trying to play on the broad-brush stereotype of all hispanics being Mexican. Even so, that's not racism.

SFNY

Yes, it is racist.

"Hispanics are Not Costumes, We are People. So Put Away Your Sombrero."

“Dressing up as a racial or ethnic stereotype is not the same as dressing up as a police officer or a nurse. This is about identity and oppression. When people must spend their lives subjugated because they do not belong to the dominant culture or ethnicity, they are in a daily battle to maintain their identity as they wish it to be formed, not as a hostile society has decided it should be or look like. As one scholar has put it – ‘We weren’t ‘colored women’ until we arrived in America, then we became such’.”

http://www.hispanicallyspeakin...