Commentary

Hey - It's A Sponsored Content Travelogue!

News item: a piece of sponsored content on the website of CBS2 Los Angeles about the Murphy Ranch command center for American Nazis before WWII was paid for, and linked to, by Mercedes-Benz of Encino, urging "make sure to arrive in your 2013 C250 Coupe.” 

Hey, it's summertime. Shouldn't you load the family into the car and take in the sights and sites that make the American tapestry so rich?

Headed for New York? Skip the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and The Lion King. Grab an iconic NYC yellow cab and make a beeline for Greene Street and Washington Place, location of the historic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. In all, 145 souls perished in the tragedy, which sensitized America to the economic and physical cruelty of sweatshops. Unlike controversial so-called contemporary scandals, the Triangle fire was a genuine industry calamity. Take a fun 'n' easy iPhone tour of this poignant and actual tragedy.

advertisement

advertisement

Gonna be in Flint, Michigan -- perhaps to eyeball firsthand the industrial ruins of a city featured in Michael Moore's Roger & Me? You can travel in luxury and style in a brand new Buick Regal, the perfect blend of economy and gracious driving, equipped with its standard 2.4L ECOTEC VVT 4-cylinder engine with fuel-efficient2 eAssist technology delivering sport-injected performance and precise, agile handling. 

But, heck, while you're in town, swing on over to nearby Mount Morris Township to see the home of the late Carol Yager, who when she died in 1994 was the world's heaviest woman, tipping the sales at 1200 pounds. 

Carol was taken too young. She was a mere 34 years old when she died of obesity-related disorders, depriving her not only of precious life but the bitchin' wardrobe enjoyed by slimmer young women who can rock out medium rise premium stretch jeggings for only $54.60, reduced from $78 from the coolest and most fragrant mofos on the planet at Abercrombie & Fitch. Are they jeans? Are they leggings? No, they're jeggings, skinny and sexy for the girl who knows how to throw her attractive lack of weight around!

Trivia time! When Northwest Flight 253 was nearly blown out of the sky on Christmas Day, 2009 by would-be underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, what city was he traveling to?

You got it...Detroit, a mere 68.5 miles from downtown Flint. You'll surely want to go check out what would have been the debris field of NW253, which would have left death and destruction over a wide swath of Wayne County and beyond. Kind of makes you wonder where a 23-year-old Nigerian could be swayed into a plot of such enormity. Well, it sure isn't from BuzzFeed. No, a plan this diabolical is the stuff of Inspire magazine, the DIY guide from the folks at Al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula.

When you think Islamic terror, do you think Hamas? Do you think Al-Shabaab? Do you think Great Eastern Islamic Raiders Front? No, you think Al-Qaeda. If you want to impose a caliphate on Western infidels, there is only one Al-Qaeda.

Isn't this a See the USA trip of a lifetime? And there you are in eastern Ohio, just a hop, skip and a jump from the Keystone State. Head on over to State College, Pa., where former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky abused at-risk boys for years before finally being brought to justice. See the Penn State athletic facility where the serial pedophile's gruesome perversities were first discovered and where his path to prison began. 

Those poor kids. Say a prayer for them.

3 comments about "Hey - It's A Sponsored Content Travelogue!".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Frank Reed from Marketing Pilgrim, July 29, 2013 at 11:13 a.m.

    What's the point here? Other than being more than slightly offensive at the choice of 'landmarks' and making light of the suffering associated with them?

  2. David DeJesus from Washington Post Media, July 29, 2013 at 11:31 a.m.

    I get it. In a sponsored content crazy world there should be processes in place to ensure content (editorial) integrity. Any responsible publisher should want to protect its readers/viewers from content that may be offensive to those reading it. After all, content whether sponsored or not trades off the publisher brand delivering that content. The rest goes without saying.

  3. Bob Garfield from MediaPost, July 29, 2013 at 11:36 a.m.

    Thanks, David. I didn't think the point was all that elusive.
    Bob

Next story loading loading..