The RINJ Foundation
RINJ Announces International Boycott of Belvedere Vodka and Calls on Countries to Rescind Belvedere's Import/Export Licences.Saturday, March 24, 2012 - Toronto Canada - RINJ Campaign has announced an international boycott of Belvedere Vodka following that company's online publication and global dissemination of content that appears to recommend Belvedere Vodka's male customers drink to excess or at least to the point they begin to perform unlawful acts such as forcible confinement; sexual assault; forced fellatio; rape; aggravated assault; abuse of women; and violent bullying while drinking.
Belevedere Vodka's ad brand promotes a rape culture
which is a complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual
aggression and supports violence against women.
This advertisement of Belvedere encourages a
continuum of threatened violence that ranges from disgusting sexual
remarks to sexual touching, forcible confinement, terrorizing women, to
rape itself.
Belvedere seems to advance that violence be seen as
sexy and sexuality as violent and further wants to promote a
concept that alcohol drinking favourably leads to sexual assault and
rape.
RINJ dot Org spokesperson and co-founder Micheal
O'Brien of Toronto commented on the actions of Belvedere in a
teleconference with the RINJ Counsel of Advisors.
"It is mind-boggling, that something like this would
come from a company attached to the Louis
Vuitton name*.
This company appears to have an internal culture which condones
physical and emotional terrorism against women as
a norm that is so 'sexy' it wants to attach that culture to its premium
Vodka brand. Not only is this warped and twisted insanity, it is of a
criminal nature and the brand must be boycotted the world over.
"To say that we are outraged is an understatement.
Rape is no joke and there is no excuse for LVMH's Belvedere subsidiary
to be doing 'rape-joke' advertising that bashes and promotes the rape of
women including Louis Vuitton's women customers.
"Prolific alcoholism and sexual violence," noted
O'Brien, "are signs of a declining society. Coming from what LVMH and
Belvedere have pretended to be a premium brand of Vodka (but which the
company now seems to see internally as nothing more than a toxic excuse
for rape crime) this type of attack on women is one of the worst we have
seen and makes the conduct of people like Joseph Kony pale in comparison
by encouraging all men, the world over, to drink liquor and sexually
abuse women.
"The global community can no longer tolerate the
existence of licensed corporations which promotes violence toward women.
"There are places on this planet where it is fatal to
your health to be born a woman," said O'Brien, noting Somalia as
one example.
"Entities and organizations seeking to expand that rape culture
to include all the world must be destroyed.
"Inasmuch as communities have authorized the licensing
and existence of liquor manufacturers such as Belevedere, those
communities can and must take those licenses away.
"RINJ urges every nation to ban the sale of Belvedere Vodka and to rescind any and all trade marks, business licenses, export licenses and that any and all food/drug/liquor substance/content approvals be withdrawn forthwith.
"RINJ further urges a global and indefinite boycott of Belvedere Vodka."
*LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton S.A., better known as
LVMH, is a French multinational apparels and accessories company
headquartered in Paris, France. The company was formed after the 1987
merger of fashion house Louis Vuitton with Moët Hennessy, a company
formed after the 1971 merger between the champagne producer Moët &
Chandon and Hennessy, the cognac manufacturer. It controls around 60
subsidiaries including Belvedere.