Lowdown: 50 Cent Gaffe Prompts Effen Vodka Boycott in Cincy
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The Lowdown is Ad Age’s weekly look at news nuggets from across the world of marketing, including trends, campaign tidbits, executive comings and goings and more.
Effen Vodka is caught up in a controversy involving 50 Cent that this week led to some Cincinnati outlets boycotting the brand. As reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer, it started when the rapper “accused an airport janitor of being on drugs because he wouldn’t respond to him in a video posted Sunday on Instagram.” The video can still be found on YouTube, below. Here’s the problem: The man targeted in the video has a social anxiety disorder and a hearing impairment, people who know him told the Enquirer.
The backlash resulted in a few Cincinnati retailers pulling Effen from their shelves. Also yanking it was a popular bar downtown called Holy Grail, the newspaper reported. On Tuesday, 50 Cent offered this apology, according to the Enquirer: “While the incident at the airport resulted from an unfortunate misunderstanding, I am truly sorry for offending the young man. It was certainly not my intent to insult him or the disability community, which is a source of great strength in America. I have apologized personally to him and his family.”
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