It wasn't directed at Mexicans, it was directed at the reactionary American right wing, and Absolut will get tons of free publicity by such gas bags as Hannity and Beck over this.
B. Ads can and do, backfire. This one has that kind of potential. Being talked about on TV and radio is not the same as being ordered in bars. If anything this is a sign that Absolut is nervous about being crushed in the market by Grey Goose/Belvedere/Chopin.
I can see you don’t work for a marketing department. There is very definitely such a thing as bad publicity - driven a Corvair lately? If they were after the effect you propose they’d have published this in the United States. This was a bonehead blunder by a marketeer who was too cute by half. It happens a lot.
Oh so you’re saying the american LEFT wing will LOVE absolut for threatening america? I don’t believe many of the american people are anti-american, even the ones who lean left still love the country for the most part and simply have a different idea about how it should be. This isn’t one of those “different ideas,” this is just a hateful threat that will piss both sides off. The potential for loss is far greater than the potential gain of a few radical reconquista.