A recent vodka billboard ad in New York City has been pulled after a flood of complaints were lodged that the ad was anti-semitic.

In the ad the billboard read:

“Christmas Quality, Hanukkah Pricing.”

In their complain the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said:

“In a crude and offensive way of trying to make a point that their vodka is high quality and inexpensive, the billboards evoke a Jewish holiday to imply something that is cheap and of lesser value when compared to the higher value of a Christian holiday.”

The ADL goes on to state that the billboard “reinforces anti-Semitic stereotypes.”

In defending the ad the creator (a Jewish man himself) says that it was celebrating the “understated” holiday of Hanukkah. The creator tells CNN:

“As a Jew growing up, the only thing we could say was we had eight nights, and Christmas had only day, so we had eight days for the price of one,” and ”With our brand, our message is you can get more for less, eight nights versus one, and we don’t need to wrap ourselves in fancy packaging.”

Do you buy the ad creators reasoning behind why the ad stated what it did? As a Jewish man he should have realized immediately that the billboard would spark Jewish spending stereotypes.

[Billboard Image via ADL]

Anti-Semitic Vodka Billboard Pulled After Sparking Outrage is a post from: The Inquisitr

Coldplay’s new album “Mylo Xyloto” debuted this week at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart, the third time the band has grabbed a No. 1 release in five studio attempts.

The Mylo Xyloto album managed to rack up 447,000 purchases during the first week of sales according to Nielsen SoundScan, marking the third highest debut sales level for an album in 2011. The only two albums to perform better this year have been Lady Gaga’s Born This Way (1.1 million first week album sales) and Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter IV” (964,000 first week album sales).

Billboard.com reports that the album also marks the biggest sales week for a rock album since U2′s No Line On The Horizon which debuted on March 21, 2009 with first week sales of 484,000 albums, also good enough at the time for the No. 1 spot for the Billboard Hot 200.

Coldplay joins a rare occurrence among rock acts, since SoundScan began tracking album sales in 1991 only 5 rock groups have surpassed 400,000 first week album sales, those groups including the Beatles (three-times), Dave Matthews Band (five times), Metallica (six times) and U2 (three times).

Coldplay’s first two No. 1 albums included 2008′s Viva La Vida Or Death and All his Friends (721,000) and 2005′s X&Y (737,000).

It should be noted that Viva’s success was owed largely to a catchy first single that became the poster song for one of the most recognizable Apple iTunes TV commercials of the year, a fact that helped the smash single Viva La Vida skyrocket to the top of the charts.

While the new album is a No. 1 hit the first single , “Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall” has peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100.

Putting the albums release in perspective the Kelly Clarkson album Stronger managed to rack up just 163,000 copies.

Are you surprised that Coldplay’s new album debuted to decently strong numbers?

[Image via Rovenko Design / Shutterstock.com]

Coldplay’s “Mylo Xyloto” Debuts On Billboard Hot 200 At No. 1 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Scotty McCreery is starting his post American Idol life at the top of the charts. McCreery’s debut album, Clear As Day, shot up to the top of the Billboard’s chart today to the number one spot. McCreery is the first country artist to hit No. 1 with their first studio album, and at just 18, he is the youngest male artist to debut with a No. 1 album. McCreery’s debut album sold 197,000 copies.

Despite having the No. 1 album in the country, McCreery is still working to graduate high school and he plans on going to college.

McCreery told the Hollywood Reporter:

“I’ve got one more class to graduate, but I’m taking a full load because I plan on applying to college. School is important. It’s going to probably take me a few years extra [to get a degree] because I’ll be working and doing the singing thing, but we’re definitely heading that way.”

Here’s the video for Scotty McCreery’s first single, “I Love You This Big.”

American Idol fans have had their doubts about the talent pool in recent years, but the 10 season of American Idol saw amazing performances from Scotty McCreery, Lauren Alaina, and Haley Reinhart. Each of the American Idols earned a record contract at the end of the season. Alaina, released her debut album earlier this week. Alaina is expected to easily break into the top 200 next week.

Billboard reports that McCreery is the first American Idol contestant to have their debut album hit No. 1 since 2003 when Ruben Studdard’s “Soulful” hit the shelves.

Were you fan of Scotty McCreery? Did you buy his new album?

Scotty McCreery Makes History With Top Charting Debut Album [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Tony Bennett this week scored the #1 album spot on the Billboard 200 for Duets II, the first time the 85-year-old singer has topped the list. Bennett’s age also makes him the oldest musician to take the honor after selling 179,000 discs in the first week of release.

The 14-time Grammy Award winner received his best placement in 2006 for Duets which actually sold more albums (202,000) but landed at No. 3 due to more competition.

Duets II features an impressive list of all-star singers including Amy Winehouse, Carrie Underwood, Lady Gaga and Mariah Carey.

Bennett’s Billboard Hot 100 appearance which comes compliments of his Body and Soul duet with Amy Winehouse also makes him the oldest musician to reach that chart, the single has reached No. 87.

The only competition Bennett faced was Demi Lovato’s third album Unbroken which debuted at No. 4 with 96,000 units. Other releases including music from Pearl Jam and Gavin DeGraw.

In general digital track sales were down year-over-year with 20.78 million songs downloaded in the last week, a 1% drop (21.01 million) from last year.

Here’s the Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse single Body and Soul:

Have you had a chance to listen to Tony Bennett’s new album? Drop us a line and let us know what you think about his new work and about the Amy Winehouse duet.

85-Year-Old Tony Bennett Scores First #1 Album On Billboard Hot 200 is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s only been a week since the Apple announcement that they promised us a day that we would never forget and finally made the Beatles song catalog available on iTunes but between then and now they have sold two million songs and 450,000 albums.

According to Billboard sales worked out like this:

The initial Beatles sales figures are in: More than 450,000 albums and 2 million individual songs were sold on iTunes worldwide, according to Apple, since the Beatles catalog was made available Tuesday (Nov. 16). In U.S. the best-selling album was “Abbey Road” and best-selling song was “Here Comes the Sun.”

Of that tally, U.S. album sales totaled 119,000 units, which included 13,000 digital box sets, while individual digital track sales reached 1.4 million, according to industry sources. Each digital box set included 13 studio albums, the two-volume “Past Masters” compilation and the “Live at the Washington Coliseum, 1964” concert film. Sources say the U.S. album sales tally of 119,000 counts each box set as one unit, while Apple’s worldwide album sales tally counts each box set as multiple sales units, although it wasn’t immediately clear how many units each box set accounted for.

I’m not the biggest Beatles fan, I do have my favorites, but it isn’t surprising at all that their music is selling as well as it is.

The Beatles prove once more how timeless they are thanks to iTunes is a post from: The Inquisitr

An Alabama TV station learned the hard way that live feeds from Twitter on your billboard, particularly when juxtaposed with an image of your news team, may not be such a fantastic idea when left unchecked.

Mashable confirmed that the pic was snapped by a driver in Mobile, then forwarded to a South Carolina blog. The tweet in question reads “3 Accused of Gang Rape in Monroeville,” and is displayed next to three WPMI anchors. The pic went viral, and WPMI-TV’s general manager and news director were suspended over the incident.

The billboard was set to display a feed from the station’s account, and though the employees were suspended, the account is still active.

Live Twitter billboard causes predictably funny fail is a post from: The Inquisitr

“Other stuff” being her new country music career– get your minds out of the gutters! Jessica Simpson must be consoled since her on-off relationship with Tony Romo is pretty shaky, most likely thanks to none other than Papa Joe.

Besides that, it looks like Jessica has finally found her niche: her single “Come on Over” debuted at number 41 on Billboard country singles charts. That makes Jessica the highest charting debut solo artist of all time, beating out Brad Cotter and Miranda Lambert who had debuted at 42. I’m impressed, and so is Jessica:

I got chills and butterflies in my stomach. It felt like the first time I heard myself on the radio when I was 19. Country is where my heart is. It’s refreshing to share something that feels so close to home. I am so honored to become a part of the country community.

Yay! That’s something to take her mind off of the horrific managing rumors about her dad.

Jessica Simpson: Bad at Relationships, Good at Other Stuff is a post from: The Inquisitr