As one marketing exec said of VW's new ad:

Here it is. Brace yourselves.

VW scoffs:

The minister of tourism for Jamaica likes it, but what does he know. Then there's the Coke commercial controversy. If you don't know what the objections are, watch it and figure out who's unhappy with it.

Everyone should be unhappy with it. That's all-around awful. But you can vote for your favorite! "Meteor striking everyone involved" is not an option. You can follow the various contestants on Twitter, too, for that utterly fictional sense of "social connectivity" companies are so desperate to attain.

As long as we're on the subject of Coke and the Middle East: here's a late-40s ad for Coke, show in Egyptian theaters.

It's as no one knew what to do with the bottle until the singer told them. Don't sit there looking miserable! Drink it!

WANT A BURGER? NEIGH Don't worry. It's not like American Burger Kings use horsemeat. Daily Mail:

Asked how many executives at the company faced dismissal over the scandal, a Burger King spokesman stomped his foot four times.

FROM HERE TO THERE Should you be working at all today, or should you be spending the day Gambian Style? BBC says:

You can debate the wisdom of this if you like; that's not why I bring it up.

The Gambia? Are there others claiming to be A Gambia, and they want to be clear who's the true Gambia?

TECH Using metaphors to familiarize people with new technology: sometimes it's a bad idea. This piece brought back the heady days when tablet computing would eliminate the PC as we knew it. Really! The Newton, General Magic's products. A reminder:

He's not kidding.

It would take years before tablets caught on, and these guys wouldn't be there to see it. General Magic didn't survive the tech crash / post 9/11 economy; it closed in 2002. But one of its projects is still in use: OnStar, the thing in your car where you shout "help, I turned over and I'in a ditch and wolves are circling the vehicle," and they send someone to help you. General Magic developed it for . . . General Motors. That's satisfying, somehow.