Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Also, homosexuals no longer must wear blue hat

Sometimes you just wonder if it's worth it. A $2 million Coke ad during the Super Bowl. A teaser ad for a Tim Allen movie in the 145th St. stop. An ad for the New York Stock Exchange. That marginal dollar might not be pulling its weight.

But the king of all squandered ad dollars must be the verbose, glossy "advertising supplements" you often see in magazines, taken out by the Government of Singapore ("Now With Less Caning"), Sao Tome & Principe ("Petro Dollars = Fantastic Hookers"), or some other developing country. They're all the same: a long description of industrial accomplishments, natural resources, the favorable investing climate, happy smiling people, and sound financial infrastructure. Who, you wonder, is gonna drop a couple million on a garment factory in Uruguay based on a fucking magazine ad?

And then I saw Sudan's supplement in Sunday's New York Times. Holy shit. If you win that trip with Nicholas Kristof, be prepared to hear about that one for a while. You'll be pulling your mummy bag over your head as he rants. (Also, I hear he's lactose-intolerant, so get a ventilated tent.)

Free speech, slippery slope, editorial principles, etc..... but man, if there's a standard for rejecting an advertisement, those from genocidal states must surely qualify. What an absolute disgrace. Nazi comparisons are almost always a bad idea, but go ahead & let your mind wander.