Big Buck Boneheads

I’m always amazed when companies or individuals with deep-as-the-ocean pockets do things that, to the ordinary Joe and Jane 2nd Mortgage, are so obviously stupid.

Obama is in Germany speaking to 100’s of thousands of people, and McCain poses for the photographers in front of a Weiner Schnitzel Hut in Ohio. DUMB!

Obama speaks behind an Obama seal that too closely resembles the President’s. DUMB!

The New Yorker’s cover featuring the militant Obamas – DUMB!

I’ve written about Nike’s Marty McFly Hyperdunks already. So far the shoes seem like a good idea, and they look okay. When I first read about their new ad featuring the shoes, it didn’t sound like a bad idea either. From Gawker.com:

Nike’s new ad campaign for its Hyperdunk shoes features a series of pictures of basketball players getting dunked on in what’s considered the worst way possible: the dunker dangling off the rim…in the face of the man being dunk-ee. They all have dynamic slogans like “That Ain’t Right!”

When I read that I immediately pictured Vince Carter dunking on that Russian guy. Seems like an okay ad to me.

Then I read about the controversy around the ads. They were labeled homophobic and insulting to the black community that is already heavily hit by AIDS. “Come on people,” I thought, thinking this was just another case of people taking political correctness to ridiculous levels. Then I saw the ad…

Uh, yeah, that ad ain’t right.

Does the defenders face have to be so buried into the dunkers crotch? It looks like his throat is taking a charge. Gross. That is offensive. I feel uncomfortable. Yet if the fella being dunked on was turning his head, I think it would be an acceptable ad.

How many millions of dollars did NIKE spend on highly paid consultants and ad professionals to design this ad, when they could have just pulled someone off the nearest corner to tell them that it was a bad idea?

Whether it’s men vying to run the country or corporations the size of a country, they each could benefit from a little more common sense.