The Economist: Weapon of Mass Deduction?

by Dollars and Sense

The Economist's latest ad campaign has become ubiquitous in Boston over the past few weeks. Similar to the recent Snickers campaign that co-opts the adbusting technique of subverting a brand's logo, The Economist's ads feature the magazine's red-box logo with various slogans replacing the words "The Economist."

And, as much as D&S laments the reverse subversion, we have to admit that the taxi roof signs with the red-box logo and the word "Illuminating" are kind of amusing—although it could just as easily be read as an advertisement for that other British newspaper, The Sun.

But the one that really gets us is The Economist's red-box logo with the slogan "Weapon of Mass Deduction."

Really?

The Economist supported the U.S.'s 2003 invasion of Iraq, continued its support even after the discovery of Iraq's complete lack of weapons of mass destruction destroyed the ostensible reason for the invasion, and keep on supporting the occupation of Iraq even though it has killed thousands of soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians, doubled acute malnutrition among Iraqi children, and cut Iraq's national income by 40%, while benefiting few people other than Bechtel and Halliburton shareholders.

You'd think that no one at The Economist had any powers of deduction at all. The slightest bit of thought would have told them that advertising The Economist with a play on weapons of mass destruction is in incredibly poor taste.

Technorati Tags: Iraq, WMD, The Economist, adbusting

 

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10/25/2006 09:59:00 AM