Subjectivity vs.Truth in Advertising

The heading for this entry is a bit of a conundrum, since advertising by nature is programmed to be subjective, as well as elicit subjectivity in those who see it. "Truth in Advertising" is a fallacious concept: if it tells you to spend money, it's capitalist propaganda. Today i came across this ad to promote tourism in Israel and for some reason, i just couldn't let it go.

Unfortunately, i don't remember exactly where i saw it (some syndicated news site, perhaps AP?) but website ads change all the time anyway... so reposted the original here.... along with my own version.

Elsewhere in the Arab state occupiers' advertising world, i came across a February '08 issue of Fortune and on the inside cover, a sky blue page with the following text: The world is grouwing by more than 70 million people a year. So is that a problem, or a solution? On the following page, one of Chevron's wordy letters about their profound faith in human ingenuity, full of assurances that a solution to the energy problem lies within the collective "us". Really you've got to give them kudos for having the audacity - after that dreadful People Do campaign - to keep printing this kind of absurdly meaningless drivel under their own logo.... isn't that what the American Petroleum Institute is for?

One of the premises here appears to be that eventually some critical mass of babies will grow up to form a cabal of technopetrowizards and solve all our energy problems. 'So, folks, listen up. If you haven't got the cash to fill up your hummer and take the family to Kandahar for the weekend, stay home and procreate instead!' Indeed, the petrol crisis is Nature's way of telling us we need to breed more geniuses. That Chevron would be making this argument strikes me as a bit bizarre, though in some respects it makes perfect sense. The more territory they violently occupy to control the world's major oil fields, the more cannon fodder they'll need to make it look like there's a war for civilization going on, rather than an endless series of banal invasions born out of sheer, unrepentant greed. If these huge petroleum conglomerates want us to give them full control over the future of our energy resources, they'd best stop talking to us like 5 year olds and say something real; Dumbledore is not going to appear in a gum wrapper and subvert our collective catastrophe. Yet on that note, one can't help but appreciate Chevron's closing statement, "The problem becomes the solution." Petrol-based economies going over the cliff sure seems like a reasonable way out of this mess to me.