It’s a basic fact of advertising: Mainstream ads do not go against the grain. To reach the largest possible amount of consumers, advertisers need to create messages that are instantly recognizable and pleasing to the majority.

 

So what does that say about the flood of ads from around the world that make fun of President George W. Bush? While American advertising has mostly left him alone, his name and image have been used in global advertising more than those of all other U.S. presidents put together.

 

It’s interesting to see what these advertisers think about how people perceive President Bush. He is consistently mocked for his lack of intelligence, and shown in the company of Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Robert Mugabe, and Kim Jung-Il. When Amnesty International or other liberal organizations create this kind of advertising, it’s not very surprising. But when big international corporations like Daimler-Chrysler (below), Lipton Tea, or Scrabble start doing the same, it can only mean one thing: In this administration’s final days, Bush-bashing has hit the big time.