A new Pizza Hut ad (see YouTube video above) that uses slices of presidential debate commentary to tout a cut-rate pizza deal has angered backers of Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich.
"Are people seeing lower prices now?" the announcer in the ad asks before cutting to a debate segment where Kucinich says: "More people in this country have seen UFOs." ". . . than voted for me."
When the vegan congressman disappears from the screen, his image is replaced by meat-covered pizzas.
Operators of several websites that admire the Cleveland congressmen are urging readers to complain to Pizza Hut. They're not mad about Kucinich being linked to pepperoni despite his meat aversion, or being linked to chain pizza despite his anti-corporate rhetoric. It's the UFO reference that's given them indigestion.
"I am going to encourage all Kucinich supporters to boycott your restaurant until you change your "debate" advertising," wrote the operator of a website called Dandelionsalad. "That was a low blow to a viable, electable presidential candidate. "Doing it to Kucinich wasn't nice, either!"
Consider the word OUT! I also think Pizza Hut should publicly apologize to the Congressman!" Don't complain. They could've used the "no strings dance".
That woulda been really embarassing.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/29/2007 10:18 ||
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"I am going to encourage all Kucinich supporters to boycott your restaurant until you change your "debate" advertising," wrote the operator of a website called Dandelionsalad.
Oh, no! The "chill wind" of Kucinichism spreads across the land!!
#6
Obviously the Pizza Hut folks did their homework and realized beforehand that a Kucinich-backed Pizza Hut Boycott would not be supported by dem-oh-graphics.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/29/2007 12:34 Comments ||
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So... vegetarians are going to boycott Pizza Hut?
Anyone else watching the "Futurama" marathon or remember the episode where they discover the incredibly tasty baby aliens? The vegetarians boycott "Fishy Joe's"...
To no effect at all.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/29/2007 13:53 Comments ||
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It is hard to know if the Kucinich backers are trying to get more mileage out of whatever publicity they can get for their candidate, no matter how feeble, or if they really think that calling attention to an ad where their candidate talks about UFO's is going to do anything other than further associate Kucinich with his comment about UFO's.
The real beneficiary of their boycott is Pizza Hut who is getting free advertising here on rantburg and elsewhere over this issue.
#10
I really don't have any reaading at all on my give-a-shit meter about what and where vegitarians graze on, just add thiem to the too-stupid-to-listen-too list and be done with it, (Along with PETA and "Save the Whales, Greenpeace, etc)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/29/2007 23:01 Comments ||
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A sensitive mission to retrieve three hostages from the rebel-held jungle this weekend entered a key phase as two helicopters sent by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Colombia.
"The operation has begun. With these two helicopters goes great hope," Chavez said Friday as the two Russian-made MI-172 helicopters took off bearing Red Cross insignia and Venezuelan flags. "We're going to get those three people in the coming days."
Wearing the red beret and fatigues of his paratrooper days, Chavez was accompanied by American filmmaker Oliver Stone and a group of international observers to see the helicopters off.
Colombia's U.S.-allied government agreed to allow the helicopters into its territory to pick up former congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez, hostage Clara Rojas and her young son with a guerrilla fighter, Emmanuel. The women have been held captive for about six years.
"I'm hoping it works," said Stone, a fan of the socialist leader who said he was there to film "a documentary about Latin America and also about North America." "There are some good Americans. That's why I'm here," Stone added after Chavez joked that he was an "emissary" from President Bush.
Is there anyone more self-absorbed than Oliver Stone?
Chavez said former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and the other observers would follow the helicopters to Villavicencio, about 50 miles south of Bogota, as soon as the Venezuelans receive word from the guerrillas about where to pick up the hostages.
The International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross is helping coordinate the handover, and Colombia's top peace negotiator, Luis Carlos Restrepo, said his government fully supports the mission and would keep its military operations from interfering.
For security reasons, Chavez said, the rebels have demanded that the Venezuelan pilots not be told where they will fly until they are airborne. The pickup could happen anytime this weekend, according to the latest information from those involved.
The secrecy reflects the mistrust of both sides in Colombia's civil conflict. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has been fighting for more than four decades, and its guerrillas are dispersed in remote camps in the jungles and countryside. Thanks to aggressive American intelligence sharing backed by $600 million in annual military aid, Colombia's security forces have pushed the FARC into a strategic retreat. They can no longer concentrate in large numbers without being detected, and tend to use human couriers rather than cell phones or other technology that can be spied upon.
While turning over the hostages, the FARC will try to give away as little information as possible about their whereabouts, said Alfredo Rangel, director of the Security and Democracy Foundation, a Bogota think tank.
Rojas, an aide to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, was kidnapped along with the French-Colombian politician and her pending release has raised hopes for relatives of Betancourt and dozens of other high-profile hostages, including three Americans.
The FARC's decision to release the hostages to Chavez has enabled the socialist leader to reassume a mediating role Colombian President Alvaro Uribe ended last month after accusing him of overstepping his mandate. Chavez hopes to broaden this role and take "a first step to open a door toward the path for Colombia to have peace soon."
On his terms, of course.
But the rebels' gesture has so failed to soften Uribe's hardline position. "This is not a game of tennis," Restrepo said, reiterating his government's refusal of the FARC's demand for a New York City-sized temporary safe haven in southern Colombia as a venue for talks on swapping the remaining 44 hostages for hundreds of jailed rebels.
The government countered by proposing a meeting with unarmed representatives of both sides at a smaller "meeting point" in an uninhabited area of the rebels' choice, which the rebels rejected.
This means the muzzle of a shotgun, not a nefarious attempt to muzzle the faithful servants of the fourth estate by gunning them down:
Pity ...
Republican Mike Huckabee took his presidential campaign for a quick pheasant-hunting expedition in Iowa on Wednesday, and at one point, a reporter asked why he hadnt invited sporting enthusiast Dick Cheney along. "Because I want to survive all the way through this," Huckabee replied, in a chuckling dig at the vice presidents accidental shooting of a quail-hunting partner last year.
Any good sportsman, though, couldnt miss a distinctly Cheneyesque moment in the press accounts of the former Arkansas governors morning hunt: At one point, Huckabees party turned toward a cluster of reporters and cameramen and, when they kicked up a pheasant, fired shotgun blasts over the groups heads.
This, friends, is dangerously bad hunting form. Now, how does this assclown Tankersley know that muzzle control is the problem? There could be any number of reasons that the Huckster missed the media beasts. Maybe hes just a bad shot.
Posted by: Gromomble Oppressor of the Iowans8916 ||
12/29/2007 04:08 ||
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NOT good enough for office. At least Dick Cheney hit his target (a lawyer at that).
#4
Meh. Birdshot overhead comes down as gentle as spring rain; now, if he'd have dropped a pheasant from 20' above their heads, THAT would have been funny...
Posted by: regular joe ||
12/29/2007 15:47 Comments ||
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More proof that Huckbee is an incompetent boob, and the people of Iowa are IDIOTS.
Nepal lawmakers Friday formally approved a decision to abolish the monarchy and declare the country a republic as part of a deal with former Maoist rebels. However, King Gyanendra will remain on the throne for the time being as the agreement between the Maoists and the government last weekend to make Nepal a republic can only be put into effect at the first meeting of a new constituent assembly. Polls for that assembly are due to be held by mid-April.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2007 00:00 ||
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Crappy deal for the Nepalese. Most of them don't care about voting and politics; tending the flock is what gets them up in the morning. Of course, Maoist agitators are flooding the villages promising 40 acres and a mule, and the Chinese sphere of influence grows bigger.
It's a bad deal for all. Natives are treated as sheep for China, and China has another "problem" to contend with when the backlash ensues. As if they don't have enough "problems" already.
Vladimir Putin's controversial youth movement is to send a select group of activists to study at British universities - despite its disdain for Britain and its harassment of the British ambassador in Moscow. The 100,000-strong Nashi group, which is reportedly funded by the Kremlin, is to pay for dozens of its activists to study in the UK - because the excellence of the education will help make Russia a "world leader".
The move comes as Russia is threatening to close the offices of the British Council - which promotes UK education overseas - in St Petersburg and Ekaterinburg as part of a diplomatic row.
Nashi recently restarted its campaign against Sir Anthony Brenton, the British ambassador, following his speech on democracy to opponents of President Putin whom they described as "fascists". Sir Anthony has described the campaign as "psychological harassment bordering on violence", and complained that it also impacted on his wife and children. His car has been followed and he has been picketed on trips out of Moscow.
Yet despite its views on Britain, Nashi states: "We lag behind in knowledge and experience vital for making Russia a 21st-century world leader. British education is rated highly all over the world. The graduates of British universities are in great demand. This is because of the high quality of education and also control from the government."
Relations between Moscow and London have been soured by Russia's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, wanted over the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London. Britain has refused to extradite Boris Berezovsky, who is accused of financial crimes by the Russians.
An embassy source said: "The British government supports young Russians who wish to study in the UK. This is a core activity of the British Council's three offices in Russia. We are delighted that Nashi clearly supports the objectives of the British Council."
#1
The 100,000-strong Nashi group, which is reportedly funded by the Kremlin, is to pay for dozens of its activists to study in the UK - because the excellence of the education will help make Russia a "world leader".
Good Lord, are these Nashi people in for a surprise.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
