So, are we all casting ourselves in the role of vigilant intelligent citizens taking corporate ignorati to task for their massive faux pas, or are we getting just a tad hyper-sensitive? Imagine if no one made the dubious connection between the logo, or the black and white effect, or the emaciated model. What would happen? Anything? Would a bunch of neo-Nazi youth say, "hey, you know what? that mainstream advertisement endorses my views! Let's go out and commit genocide!" I really doubt it. The ad would be up for a few months, then it would come down, and everyone would just go on with their lives. And for folks who might attack my generational ignorance, I just want to point out that I'm a historian and have taught the WWII era to undergraduates, most of whom were well-aware if the symbol's significance, so nyah! But seriously, if people didn't keep saying "this is a problem!", would it even be a problem?

Keep laughing, everybody. I, for one, am gonna go lock myself in the garden shed with a shotgun and wait for the chimp head Roombas to realize their collective power and overthrow society. That Dinty Moore beef stew is going to taste mighty bittersweet when I'm the only human left alive.

Ew.

I don't know, I didn't see an "SS" logo until somebody said it. It's not the first thing that pops into my mind by a long shot. In fact, my first response was, "oh a cell phone add, that means I don't have to pay attention." Doesn't it take two to tango (by which I mean "massively misconstrue some innocuous bit of advertising into something to get all worked up about")?

Oh yeah, f-ing with the criminally insane is a lot of fun. When you read them, most of these are actually pretty sad. Kind of a depressing experiment. And what does "pop-culture historian" mean? Does it mean "not a real historian"? I think it does.