Station 280 Sports Bar in St. Paul is catching some heat for a Thanksgiving ad campaign they ran which carried the headline “Drink like an Indian. Party like a Pilgrim.” The posters show a cowboy and an American Indian sitting together drunk on the floor along with the image of a curvaceous, leggy woman in Pocahontas-like garb. The ad promoted the bar’s Wednesday through Saturday drink specials.
Following a few hundred complaints made to Jessica Nordin, the bar’s marketing manager, the posters were taken down. The image was also removed from the bar’s Facebook page. Nordin, who too the marketing position after the posters had been approved and produced siad the bar was simply trying to be edgy.
In addition to apologies to various individuals and groups which complained, the bar’s owner, Chris Mueller says he will make a donation to an American Indian group.
Apparently unaware of the bad rap American Indians got in relationship to Thanksgiving and the U.S. Department of Health’s findings alcohol, drug abuse, cardiovascular and diabetes are higher among native Americans, Nordin said, “It put some things into perspective about history. I’ve gotten a couple of comments that American Indians were already stung by the holiday in the first place, and we made it worse. I guess I didn’t realize that perspective would come out of the flier.”
