It seems that for the past several weeks more than a few people are little upset (that would be an understatement) by this Absolut print ad that shows the borders of the United States as they were many centuries ago (or close to it). The campaign was produced by Teran/TBWA, Mexico City.

Some wingnuts have suggested people Photoshop in fences and all kinds of other hateful things. Popular political bloggers have written hundreds of posts with thousands of comments.

I tend to think of Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business when an issue of this type comes to the surface. Of all the things we need to worry about in this country, much less the world, why focus on a freaking ad? Could it be to divide and distract us from the real issues at hand? No don’t look at our monetary policy (just to name one of many issues), look over here at this shinny thing.