NYTimes Spoof Creates Laughs... and At Least One Howl

Web site joker.com - which is in the domain name registration business - recently launched a parody of a New York Times online edition (dateline "Saturday, July 4, 2009") that includes plenty of lefty new utopian "news" and "ads."

An American Apparel ad, for example, features the usual scantily clad woman (with breasts tastefully covered) in an ad that says "We've been very, very Naughty. But now we're unionizing our employees." At which point the model suddenly has a picket sign in hand that cries "I have a Voice, too!" And an ad for a Manhattan dermatologist says "for the price of the best tattoo removal in NYC, you can now rebuild a classroom in Iraq."

Well, not all of the satire is appreciated, apparently. DeBeers, those wonderful folks who bring us diamonds from (some think) African trouble spots, seems to have little sense of humor. MediaPost has the whole story on the DeBeers cease and desist order.

Meanwhile, Electronic Frontier Foundation (full disclosure, I'm a member) has it's lawyers on the job arguing against censorship and for free speech.

Why Advertising People Will Never Get Elected. But why do lawyers?

This morning's MediaPost Over the Line: a lighthearted look at advertising features an article Madmen = Badmen.

According to a recent (November 7 to 9, 2008) Gallup Poll, advertising practitioners are among the least well rated for honesty and ethics. The MediaPost article speculates that the over-the-top booze, butts and babes hijinks paraded on the AMC TV series Mad Men might have down-skewed the numbers for us ad folks. If the 'truth in advertising' bit in the article amuses you, you might want to rent the movie Crazy People.

As for the poll, I remember previous editions usually had us in the cellar, too. Once again we're nestled right in there with some of our clients, including business execs, car dealers, stock brokers (even Sam Waterston can't change that image) and, as always, lawyers.

Surprisingly, bankers are still in the middle range - sandwiched between journalists and building contractors (aren't those the guys that start the job and then don't show up for days?) - even in light of current events. I'm wondering if shadowy mortgage conspirators are seen by most people as having little or nothing to do with their friendly and rock-steady local ATM.

Top o' the heap: nurses, druggists, high school teachers, MDs, cops, clergy - in that order.

(Yeah, cops over fire fighters and ad people. Go figure.)