April 9, 2005

UNDERSTANDING COMES WITH TIME:

Time for a New Ad Campaign (Powerline, 4/9/2005)



I would like to applaud Time magazine for journalistic excellence that is all too rare in America today.

Here, an American soldier is praying. He has his hands clasped and head bowed as Christians are taught to pray.

Now, this is surely mystifying behavior to secular liberals, who need help to "Know why" he is behaving in this way. So Time takes up this educational mission, and explains that he is praying because he is religious, and religious people pray, as Jesus taught -- "Pray always."

This is the kind of insight into a foreign culture that keeps secular liberals shelling out the money for a Time subscription. Time is doing well by doing good -- increasing its liberal readership, while helping liberals to understand their fellow Americans. A worthy endeavor, and Time is right to trumpet its success through this ad.

Posted by Paul Jaminet at April 9, 2005 12:04 PM
Comments

I see that as a picture of a weary soldier, who is perhaps thinking, but not necessarily praying. And I'll bet Time didn't see him as praying, either.

Posted by: PapayaSF at April 9, 2005 1:10 PM

My take, when I first saw it, was that Time was showing an exhausted and depressed soldier -- more we're losing the war propaganda.

Posted by: jd watson at April 9, 2005 2:17 PM

C'mon guys, PJ was waxing sarcastic in his posting...

Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at April 9, 2005 3:17 PM

Agree with the above, but isn't this campaign as timely as selling winter coats in April? Perhaps it takes them six months to take and develop a picture. Of course, if we want to wax sarcastic, how about a more timely assessment: a bored soldier, with nothing more to do, awaiting the announcement of flight 352 from Baghdad to Tulsa (where he will be surely given a hero's welcome, not that you will see that covered in Time...)

Posted by: Moe from NC at April 9, 2005 5:37 PM

Bruce - If I can't rise to 'humorous', sarcastic will have to do.

I do think the Time campaign is rather funny, partly for the reason Moe notes.

Posted by: pj at April 9, 2005 6:30 PM

Honestly, when I first saw it, I thought Time was trying to advertise itself as good bathroom reading material.

Posted by: John at April 9, 2005 9:26 PM

He just read a copy of TIME.

Posted by: Noel at April 9, 2005 9:45 PM
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