Where's Obama?

CNN’s “Where’s Obama” incident may or may not have been purely accidental, but the practice of falsely relating disparate or even antithetical things has become a refined skill in advertising and the media (is there a difference?)

Barak Obama seems to be the recipient of a suspicious number of accidental associations with militant Islamic figures and some quite obviously deliberate.  I’d like to say it will backfire and I’d like to say that such things are too childish to work, but fictitious association building has become the way things, people and ideas are sold in our brave new world.  Last night I watched an advertisement – a video shot from the cockpit you’re meant to believe is a race car on the Nürnburg Ring complete with sporty engine sounds.  We pass sports cars like they’re standing still.  Of course what they’re advertising is a truck and the entire premise is a grotesque lie on a par with the “Joe Isuzu” ads of the 1980’s only without the humor.

No your SAAB doesn’t “come from jets,” a Suzuki truck is not a fair substitute for the performance and excitement of a high performance motorcycle, your Jeep may have been “Inspired by race car design” but has no actual race car design, performance or safety,  Theresa Kerry has never been the CEO of the ketchup company and Barak Hussein Obama shares nothing other than a name with the former tyrant of Iraq and nothing at all with Osama bin Laden.  CNN may apologize profusely, but the image has been created, the outrageous lie has been launched and there is no bringing it under control.  Are we one step closer to a world where the truth is what you want it to be and facts are things you create to sell it?