On this day in 1990, Lech Walęsa was elected president of Poland; I was in Warsaw when it happened. My employer, Seagram, had just acquired US distribution rights to Wyborowa (“vee bore RO va”), a Polish vodka, and I was mining propaganda opportunities. Poland’s Communist government had only recently fallen, the country was under martial law from 1981 and nobody was quite sure what would come next. Walęsa’s Solidarity Party saved the day and he was an unalloyed success. Wyborowa not so much. Our American ad campaign for the vodka said, “If you can’t pronounce it, you can’t have it”. The drinking public replied, “No problem. Gimme an Absolut”.
© 2024 John Oliver
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