Teach Me To Read!

Via Roy Edroso, here's a bit of whining from James Lileks.

If Madison Av made a commercial about a homecoming vet, the Times piece didn't discuss it. And if they didn't make such an ad: I'm not a bit surprised.

The thing is, two years ago there was a homecoming vet ad. In fact, it was for Budweiser, and that's all it was: a vet walking through an airport and everybody cheers.

Typical conservative saying "Why hasn't this thing that already happened, happened? Figures!"

Not only that, but in the excerpt of the New York Times article which sparked this whine-fest, right there in the first paragraph, is a REFERENCE to the aforementioned homecoming vet ad!

No commercial that appeared last night during Super Bowl XLI directly addressed Iraq, unlike a patriotic spot for Budweiser beer that ran during the game two years ago. But the ongoing war seemed to linger just below the surface of many of this year’s commercials.

So let's recap. Lileks is upset because (a) Madison Avenue doesn't make patriotic commercials and (b) The New York Times doesn't talk about them. In fact, (a) Madison Avenue does make patriotic commercials and (b) The New York Times talks about them in the first paragraph of a story that's IN HIS BLOG POST.

Now I know why I avoid James Lileks like the plague.

P.S. Everyone's talking about the undercurrent of violence (and in some cases homophobia) in Super Bowl ads, but the oddest one to me was the ad that listed a bunch of accomplishments of black people and then showed a Coke bottle. "Black people are important, drink Coke" would be the short version.