The McBournie Minute: Advertising

It seems everyone's in an uproar over MoveOn.org's ad in the New York Times. Aside from the "General Betray Us" quip, critics are saying the ad was misleading, deceitful, even untrue. Since when is that new for advertising?

This is the same country that has been sold cookies by Keebler elves (or were they girl scouts?) while crying Indians told us all to clean up our litter. This may come as news for some of you: the elves don't exist, I'm not even sure if girl scouts do. And that weepy Indian? He was actually an Italian actor. Keep in mind, this whole "New World" thing was kicked off by an Italian who thought it would be a good idea to enslave the native population.

Every single ad you see is trying to mislead you and make you think positively about their product. Take Apple's new iPod Nano commercials. Aside from the incredibly annoying counting song done by some unidentified woman who can't really sing all that well, the commercial leads you to believe the screen on their product is so big you will watch music videos on it all the time. What they don't tell you is that your eyes strain even on the regular-sized iPod. It will probably give you astigmatism (look it up).

The advertising industry is all about spin, lies and half-truths. It has always been that way. That is exactly why we should view every ad (except those for SG) with a wary eye. Least of all a political ad from MoveOn.org.