I guess I want America to fail #FdAdFriday

I have no other comment.

(Thanks to Kerry and Casey for sharing)

What the Falklands, Argentina? #FdAdFriday

Oh, my. Argentina really is poking the bear. (Or rather, the bulldog.)

In this new spot for Argentina's Olympic team, field hockey captain Fernando Zylberberg run through the Falklands, and (according to Yahoo! News) ends his workout "on the island's Great War Memorial, which honours British sailors who died in World War I".

The tagline then claims the islands as "Argentine soil"...

For those of you not born yet 30 years ago, at the time Great Britain and Argentina went to war over the desolate British territorial islands off the southern coast of South America. 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel and three Falkland Islanders died during the conflict, which the Brits won.

Argentina has never given up its claim to the islands, however, and has been making increasingly threatening statements about having another go at them.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague was unimpressed by this attempt to politicize the Olympics:

"Of course in Britain we remain absolutely steadfast in our support for the self determination of the Falkland Islanders and we will always support that," he added.

"It is a rather sad stunt, it won't impress anybody in the world. We are not do going to take any actual action in response to it."

Peeing on an electric fence is this week's hot political metaphor #FdAdFriday

It's based on a Will Rogers quote

Roland Sledge, candidate for Texas Railroad Commissioner, says, “Isn't it about time we elected political leaders that have sense enough not to pee on electric fences.”



Indeed it is.

Via Buzzfeed

Wendy's Canada "poutitions" parliament to recognize our national dish

Update: Wendy's e-mailed me with the following:

"Thank you for mentioning the Wendy’s Poutition in your latest blog post. We just wanted to clarify that we have yet to reach our goal of 100,000  signatures (we’re at 2,465 as of today)."

Which confused the hell out of me, because the "progress" graphic said they had reached their goal. (Turns out its the default screen you get if you try to look at the "poutition" without "liking" the page first.)

Anyway, if you want to pitch for poutine, you still have a chance...

That's right. The goopy, seems-like-a-great-idea-after-last-call, mix of fries gravy and curd cheese that Quebec gave Canadians everywhere: Poutine.

In a pretty clever Facebook promotion, Wendy's Canada is asking Canadians to "like" its page and sign the "poutition". If they get 100,000 clicktivists, they say they'll officially submit it to Parliament for consideration.

And they've apparently made it.

I assume the Opposition NDP will support the motion, seeing as they have so much support in poutine's homeland of Quebec. And the majority Conservatives, who were mostly shut out of seats in Quebec, and are still looking to make in-roads to the major Ontario urban centres where poutine is popular, will find this issue worth considering. (The third-party Liberals, in honour of long-serving Prime Minister Jean Poutine, will likely vote on party lines.)

The idea of making a classic Quebec comfort food Canada's "national" dish is likely to cause some controversy, however. First of all because it is already a "national" dish in the nation-within-a-nation that is Quebec. Second, many Westerners have yet to be converted to the ultimate junk food.

But I think it's a nice way to acknowledge that most great Canadian cultural icons come from Quebec: jazz legend Oscar Peterson, Oscar-winning Director Denys Arcand, Captain of the Goddamn Starship Enterprise William Shatner, Celine D-...  Did I mention the Captain of the Goddamn Starship Enterprise?

Even Wendy's has seen fit to make this an opportunity for the "Rest of Canada" to make Quebec feel more loved, even going so far as to parody the federalist slogan "My Canada Includes Quebec".

PETA sexploitation ads: Coming on a fire truck near you?

Add caption

Only if you live in Baltimore.

According to AdFreak, a Baltimore city councillor has proposed selling ad space on city vehicles to add an new revenue stream. PETA has already mocked up their own custom ad for the occasion, claiming that seeing a half-naked woman and a bad pun "will drive Baltimore residents to PETA's heart-healthy vegan recipes that will keep them firing on all cylinders."

Yeah, whatever.

Today's batshit insane Herman Cain video features killer chickens

The crude attempts ar comedy make this ad too awful to even be considered "so bad it's good."


Over at sickofstimulus.com, they are now crowdsourcing themes for their next ad.

 Why "Sick of Herman Cain's batshit insane videos" is not an option is beyond me.

Also, this made me laugh:

Barbie 2012

Cross-posted at Sociological Images

Barbie is running for President of The United States of America... again.

The candidate as Euro-American.

She even has a campaign Tumblr. But what is her platform?

Okay, so she's not taking any strong stands on the GOP's War on Women's reproductive rights. But she did come up with a totally awesome nickname for her campaign ("Glam-paign"). 

Apparently, however, candidate Barbie will do something no other candidate can: she will bridge the racial divide in America by morphing herself into four different ethnicities!

The candidate as African American, Asian American and Latina(?) American.

Yes, I get that this is a toy. And the Miss-America-style platitudes are to be expected from a company that wants to sell to both sides of the political divide. But it's a shame that girls don't get a chance to see that women really can change the world.

This week, Malawi swore in Southern Africa's first female head of a country. She wasn't elected as such, but as Vice President took the position after President Bingu wa Mutharika died in office. (A scenario that could have happened with Sarah Palin, had John McCain won the Presidency.)

Other women currently heading states and countries are:

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - President of Liberia
Doris Leuthard, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Simonetta Sommaruga - Members of the Swiss Federal Council, Switzerland
Pratibha Patil - President of India
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner - President of Argentina
Dalia Grybauskaitė - President of Lithuania
Laura Chinchilla - President of Costa Rica
Dilma Rousseff - President of Brazil
Atifete Jahjaga - President of Kosovo
Monique Ohsan Bellepeau - Acting President of Mauritius
Slavica Đukić Dejanović - Acting President of Serbia

And:

Angela Merkel – Chancellor of Germany
Julia Gillard - PM of Australia
Yingluck Shinawatra – PM of Thailand
Helle Thorning-Schmidt – PM of Denmark
Portia Simpson-Miller – PM of Jamaica
Kamla Persad-Bissessar – PM of Trinidad and Tobago
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir – PM of Iceland (Appointed)
Hasina Wazed – PM of Bangladesh 

The United States has yet to elect a woman to the position. And while Canada has had two appointed female Vice-Regents, we have yet to elect a woman to the Prime Minister's Office. (Kim Campbell was nominated for the position directly by her party.)

So perhaps it's time for Barbie, who has been in every federal election since 1992, to campaign a little harder. Or for North American countries to catch up with the rest of the world and nominate and elect a woman of substance who isn't seen as just "another Barbie".

Herman Cain's latest ad is really special

Shades of Monty Python and The Holy Grail...

Herman Cain has really gone off the deep end, and has now become a comedy act.



I thought we had heard the last of Mr. Cain's bizarre campaign ads after he dropped out of the Republican leadership race. But now he's pitching sickofstimulus.com to promote his ideas about smaller and cheaper government.

Interestingly, the site has a poll:

After viewing the Rabbit video, do you think it was offensive?Even if you didn’t like it, do you think it should've been censored by YouTube?If the video had remained down permanently, do you think it was a violation of Cain Connections’ First Amendment right of Freedom of Speech?

I missed the censorship episode, although I am pretty sure no animals were harmed in the filming of this bit of crazy. There are much worse things out there.

Welcome to Obamaville

Rick Santorum's team have cooked up a rather epic plan to discredit the policies of US President Barack Obama: Obamaville.

It's a dystopian "Anytown, USA" in 2014, two years into President Obama's second term: People are out of work, Main Street is a ghost town, gas prices are up, religious bigotry (sorry... "freedom of religion") is under attack and people have to deal with the horrors of semi-socialized healthcare.



Oh yeah, and the USA is under nuclear threat from Iran.

Or is its biggest threat its own President?

Dun dun dun...

David Weigel at Slate talks about the weird TV thing. To me its the least of this ad's idiocies.

For example, what is the meaning behind this baby image? Is this supposed to be "pro-life"? If so, it's confusing.

And what the hell does this symbolize? Sexual immorality? Loss of free speech? Too many public libraries full of secular books?

And then we're transported back to the industrial revolution for some reason.

Hey, cool! It's The Matrix!

Perhaps they'll explain all these random images when the 8-part webisode series launches on the Santorum campaign site in a couple of weeks.

But for the time being, let's imagine what "Santorumville" would look like. (I'm thinking something like Stepford, Connecticut, but with more Jesus.)

Hilarious political bus wrap gaffe

This bus wrap, for Alberta Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith, is quite the "oops".

CBC reports that the campaign office is concerned that this design "oversight" is a "distraction" and that it  will be changed immediately. I'm amazed the bus ever saw the light of day.

Ms. Smith is running in the 2012 Alberta provincial election in the southern riding of Highwood. She describes herself as a conservative who is "libertarian and pro-choice."

So, lets just have a good chuckle over the mistake and let her get back in the saddle. She deserves our respect. Just as soon as we get this image out of our minds.

Thanks to Eric for sharing.

Canadian Parliament to face the "personhood" debate

Sharable ad from the "Not Yet Born" blog,
linked from Stephen Woodworth's official site.

If there's one issue Canada's majority Conservative government would rather not talk about, it's abortion. Not covered by any specific legislation since 1988, the deeply divisive medical procedure is something many Canadians, regardless of their personal beliefs, just don't feel comfortable talking about in public.

That may soon change, however, as Kitchener's Conservative MP, backbencher Stephen Woodworth, has convinced his party to let him have an hour of Parliament's time to discuss Motion 312, his request that "a special committee of the House be appointed and directed to review the declaration in Subsection 223(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada which states that a child becomes a human being only at the moment of complete birth and to answer the questions hereinafter set forth."

The Honourable Member has positioned himself as the Canadian champion of this cause, similar to the American anti-abortion Personhood movement.

In his own words:

“Canada’s 400 year old definition of human being says children are not human beings until the moment of complete birth”, he said.  “I’ve concluded that modern medical science will inform us that children are in reality human beings at some point before the moment of complete birth.  Canadians need to know there’s no human rights for children before complete birth.
...
A respectful dialogue to update a 400 year old definition of human being with the aid of twenty-first century information will benefit everyone. Whatever view one has about other issues, does it make medical sense in the twenty-first century to say that a child is not a human being until the moment of complete birth?  Members of Parliament have a duty not to accept any law that says some human beings are not human.”

The complication, of course, comes when we try to determine what makes a developing human a "person".

In the United States, the debate is a religious one:

"Personhood is a movement working to respect the God-given right to life by recognizing all human beings as persons who are 'created in the image of God' from the beginning of their biological development, without exceptions."

 This has resulted in attempts to overthrow the legality of abortion in some states, such as Mississippi (where the failed "personhood amendment"would have given full legal rights to a fertilized egg) and Ohio (where the "heartbeat bill" pending debate would ban abortions at the first recordable sign of cardiovascular activity around 9+ weeks).

Mr. Woodworth is proposing a "scientific" approach to determining what makes  human a "person" under the law. But such definitions will by their very nature be philosophical, since the definition must be clarified to be tested: does a heartbeat make us fully human? Reaction to outside stimulus? Observable brain activity? The ability to survive outside the womb? Or simply having been fertilized, and therefore having become genetically distinct from the mother?

This is a classic "slippery slope", an it slides in two opposite directions. On one end is the total ban on abortion from the moment of conception. On the other is the ability to terminally abort a healthy full-term baby. (Nobody really wants the latter, but it's what Mr. Woodworth is implying as the problem.)

In the end, it will come to the same argument about whose rights triumph: a self-aware pregnant woman's control over her own body versus the state's power to compel her to carry the developing human inside her to term. And it will be ugly.

The best Jesus bumper sticker ever

Okay, so the copy's too long (and font's too small) to read while tailgating this truck in Alaska, but the message is still pretty clever.

Via Buzzfeed.

WTM endorses: Hayley Wade for VP, Student Life

UPDATE: She won.

She seems like a nice young woman:

"Hey everyone!  

My name is Hayley Wade and I am running for VP Student Life in the Students’ Union election this upcoming March. I would love and appreciate your support with this endeavor! I have big goals for this position, and I with your help, I know I can achieve them. If you would like to learn more about what I want to do to help you, please check out my platform and feel free to ask me about any questions you may have! If you support me and the great goals I have for this position, please spread the word about my campaign and tell everyone you know, to VOTE HAYLEY WADE from March 6 - 8!
You can also follow my campaign on twitter @voteHAYLEY, send me an email voteHAYLEY@hotmail.com and join the Facebook group - vote HAYLEY WADE for VP Student Life 

Thank you for your support! Please let me know what I can do to help you!"

Ms. Wade was just your average Canadian student politician. Until this campaign poster (said to be strategically placed above urinals on campus) hit Reddit. And Copyranter. And Buzzfeed.

I actually think it's a brilliant campaign poster. But is she really behind it?

According to OpenFile, this was her response on social media (note avatar):

And here she is on Twitter:

So I'll put this down as "not a prank". And I wish Ms. Wade the best of luck.

Vladimir Putin's sexy appeal to virgin voters

I have never understood why President Putin has all this sexual mythology around him, but it's really being played up in the current election campaign as he is shown to be the perfect seducer of "virgin" voters.

(Hit the "show annotations" button if you don't get English subtitles.)


(Via Animal NY)


(Via Radio Free Europe)

Yeah, it's super creepy. But so is the man himself.

Don't look too closely at this Santorum mosaic #FdAdFriday

That is, unless you want to see more Santorum.

Not the man, mind you, but the substance. It's made up entirely of gay porn.

Via Death + Taxes

"China" political ad proves that racism is a losing strategy

Pete Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican running for the United States Senate, ran this Super Bowl ad that offended pretty much everyone.



Accusing his opponent, Debbie Stabenow of increasing US reliance on China by passing "wasteful spending bill after wasteful spending bill," it used a caricature of a Chinese woman to push xenophobic buttons among his supporters.

Instead, the ad rallied support (and funds) for "Debbie Spenditnow" and critics from both parties called the ad “offensive and insensitive,” “very disturbing” and “really, really dumb.”

It was also parodied by Funny or Die:

Controversial Racist Pete Hoekstra Ad - watch more funny videos      

Even the actress involved in the ad became the focus of negative attention, and she was outed by the Angry Asian Man blog:

The details about her identity are out there, slowly trickling in. And I imagine Ms. Chan is about to receive a lot of unwanted attention. I actually agonized over whether or not to post this information. I'm not trying to demonize her -- people have already done plenty of that, and I think that takes our attention away from the real culprit, Pete Hoekstra and his blatantly racist fear-mongering. And I hope you, good readers, will keep cool heads about this. 

I'm not saying Lisa Chan is blameless. I go back and forth between wanting to hang her out to dry for making such an idiotic, destructive choice, and feeling sorry that she was just doing a job, manipulated by a politician's ugly tactics.  

The truth is, I fall somewhere in the middle, and in the end I'd just like to know how a seemingly intelligent, educated person with a history of community involvement could willingly take part in something so fantastically awful and so harmful in ways that we can't even anticipate. 

For her part, Ms. Chan issued a full and heartfelt apology (in the manner of our times):

 And the man who "approved this message"? He still doesn't get it.



Lose, Pete Hoekstra. Lose big.

UPDATE: Hoekstra pulled the ad from YouTube. But it lives on.

Savage's "Santorum" gag keeps giving and giving

I was trying really hard not to post a poopy Rick Santorum post today.

I saw this headline, and I abstained.

I read his comments about how contraception is "not OK, because it's a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be... They're supposed to be within marriage, for purposes that are, yes, conjugal... but also procreative." Which is stupid, but just shows people how completely out of touch he is.

But then this happened:



That's right. It's a Mitt Romney lookalike shooting something that's supposed to be "mud" at a Santorum standee, but ends up looking much more like...

And this is an official ad, approved and posted by Santorum.

As George Takei would say, "Oh, My!"

Canada for President!

"In our riots, people get laid"

This cute video proposes a third option to cynical American voters for the 2012 Presidential Election: Canada.

Think about it: better healthcare, a stronger economy, poutine... we really have a lot to offer. And, as the Canada Party points out, we've been getting more American lately anyway.



The video could have been much funnier, but according to an interview in the Scottish ad blog, The Drum, there are many more campaign ads to come between now and November.

Here's the background:

"[Brian] Calvert and American-born writer Chris Cannon developed the idea while throwing around concepts for a politically-based comedy project and Cannon's idea of Canada as a political party. 

Of the present US election debate, Calvert says, 'I can't believe anyone can see who to vote for.' 

Filmed in a friend's living room, the video has the national anthem, O Canada, playing softly in the background as Calvert pokes fun at both America and his homeland. 

Running on a platform of 'America, but better,' Calvert explained the theme was actually a position many political candidates were taking: restoring American to its former glory.
Putting aside that it's a country and not a person, Calvert acknowledges that Canada was not born in the U.S. 

'But the first seven presidents weren't born in America," he says. "Both of our parents are the British, so it's like we're brothers.'"

Homeschooled child is a puppet against equal marriage

What a bizarre thing this is. With no visual, and prompted by some creepy-sounding dude, a 14-year-old girl reads what seems to be a prepared statement (you can hear the paper script crinkling in her hands) asking Maryland legislators to vote against equal rights for same-sex couples.



Manipulating kids for political ends. Nice one.

Bad Lip Reading does Rick Santorum

And this is the most sense he has ever made to me.



Via Buzzfeed