WHERE SUCCESSFUL ADVERTISING MEETS LGBT EQUALITY

SPI Group, The Most Original Stoli Guy - Summer 2013

Members:

The campaign is a 13-city effort to select a the "most original people" to match it with the "most original vodka."

Campaign runs at -- http://www.gaycities.com/stoliguy/cities/

However, this campaign had very unfortunate timing, as it coincided with a “Dump Stoli” proxy boycott of the brand and the winter Olympics to be held in Russia, initiated by various factions of the LGBT community and aimed at raising awareness of Russian anti-LGBT "propaganda" laws. A list of gay bars in various American and British cities held public demonstrations of pouring Stoli into the gutter.

In response, SPI announced on its website that it “stands strong & proud with the global LGBT community.”

As the LA Times wrote, "The problem with the North American boycott, known on Twitter as the #dumpstoli campaign, is that the vodka is distilled in Latvia and owned by a Luxembourg company controlled by a Russian billionaire driven into exile for his opposition to just the kind of official prejudice exhibited in the new law targeting gays."

SPI said in a statement to Gay Star News, "All Stolichnaya vodka for worldwide export is produced in Latvia. Stolichnaya is produced by the Latvian company Latvijas Balzams and production takes place in Riga."

SPI Group's CEO, Val Mendeleev, notes that his company has been “inaccurately link[ed]” to the Kremlin. “The Russian government has no ownership interest or control over the Stoli brand that is privately owned by SPI Group, headquartered in Luxembourg in the heart of Western Europe. We fully support and endorse your objectives to fight against prejudice in Russia. In the past decade, SPI has been actively advocating in favor of freedom, tolerance and openness in society, standing very passionately on the side of the LGBT community and will continue to support any effective initiative in that direction.”

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