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Food

Smirnoff Savagely Trolls Trump with New Ad Campaign

Maybe Trump can try to spin this and blame Smirnoff for the failure of Trump Vodka.
Photo via Twitter user @RobbieGramer

If there's a singular truth to be gleaned from Donald Trump's presidency, it's that there's simply no more unwavering stalwart of a free and open democracy than a woke multinational vodka company.

Don't believe us? Just take a gander at Smirnoff Vodka's most recent advertising campaign, which officially jumps on the whole Russiagate scandal by unabashedly poking fun at Donald Trump's assertion last Friday that he would be "100 percent" willing to testify under oath about his interactions with former FBI director James Comey.

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In the now-viral ad, Smirnoff trolls Trump by saying "Made in America, but we'd be happy to talk about our ties to Russia under oath." While Smirnoff is currently owned by massive British beverage corporation Diageo, Smirnoff Vodka was indeed founded in Moscow. The Smirnov family fled Russia during the October Revolution in 1917 and the company's products are currently produced and sold in more than 130 countries. That said, the bulk of Smirnoff vodka sold in the US is in fact made domestically.

Much has been made about The Atlantic's musing over whether satire can "save the Republic" and Michael Moore's call for an "army of satire" as a surefire method to "bring him down"—meaning the President, of course—but it seems as though the old adage is correct; you know, the one that goes, "Never send a comedian to do a British multinational's job."

READ MORE: I Tasted Donald Trump's Defunct Golden Vodka

When asked about the genesis of the ad, a spokesperson for Diageo told MUNCHIES, "Smirnoff has been made in America for more than eight decades. The recent interest in American-made products created the perfect opportunity to reinforce that fact and the brand's roots in Russia—with a wink and nod to current affairs." The spokesperson also emphasized that "Smirnoff has been produced in the US since 1934."

Before you jump to the conclusion that the vodka company is likely to become the sainted new leader of the #Resistance, you might want to consider the company's somewhat checkered past. Diageo has repeatedly been hit with allegations of tax dodging, has offended survivors of rape and sexual abuse with an ad campaign some claimed "blames victims of rape for their own rape," and was forced to pay more than $16 million to settle civil regulatory charges relating to bribing foreign officials.

Smirnoff may be trying to capitalize on the controversy swirling around President Trump, but as everyone undoubtedly knows, if Trump were to align himself with a vodka outside his own failed foray into spirits, it'd almost certainly be a Crystal Head bottle filled with Goldschläger.