Policy or Parody?

June 19, 2001 7:39 AM

Policy or Parody? A group calling itself "Citizens for Capital Punishment" ran an ad in the Terre Haute paper (both the NYT and the WP rejected it) showing a family watching the McVeigh execution on television and cheering. This seems too far over the top to be a real pro-death-penalty piece, but if it's satire, the creators are playing it straight. [via Media News]
posted by harmful (9 comments total)

you can't be serious. The photo does not show the family "watching" anything at all.
posted by anathema at 8:06 AM on June 19, 2001

That is surely a piss-take.
posted by Mocata at 8:08 AM on June 19, 2001

But, of course, there is an association there, anathema. Look at the image and then the caption; how could this not be an ad for said program?

It feels like parody to me. Since these guys are in Chicago, I might have some detective work to do.
posted by hijinx at 8:08 AM on June 19, 2001

Anathema, the picture does very clearly show the family "watching" a television. The caption implies that they are watching either the execution, or news of the execution.
It has to be satire. It's great. "Hey kids, gather 'round and see what Mommy and Daddy support."
posted by Doug at 8:50 AM on June 19, 2001

It's either parody, or the ad people need to go to Parody school.
posted by holgate at 9:00 AM on June 19, 2001

It's actually not too far off from the recorded reactions of the monkeys that gathered around the execution.
If you didn't know what they were there for, you'd have thought their team scored a touchdown.
posted by dong_resin at 10:07 AM on June 19, 2001

That photo looks like it was taken from an old Atari ad.
posted by Dirjy at 10:16 AM on June 19, 2001

Not to toot my own horn, but this is very much in the vein of the minor culture-jam I did with an AP graphic of the execution. I did it thinking it would be funny, and ended up with something that makes me uncomfortable instead.

It seems to me that most of the people who were not opposing McVeigh's execution would simply rather that the attention be given to the victims instead.
posted by dhartung at 2:34 PM on June 19, 2001

That's pretty neat, dhartung.
posted by dong_resin at 10:30 PM on June 19, 2001