Everyone’s getting excited about the following advert for El País, Spain’s principal socialist-atavist newspaper, sourced here, which says something along the lines of “A day is enough for a lot. Imagine what can happen in three months”:

Revolting, but excellent advertising: it makes clear to those who were secretly rather pleased by 9-11 that El País shares their viewpoint, while those of us who wouldn’t buy the paper anyway will at least blog it. Give them a prize named after … what was that German bloke called?

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1. John Pawlenko
   September 15th 2004 20:13

   Dammit Trevor – have you bugged my apartment? That’s almost exactly what my other half said to me a short while ago.

   No matter what the reason for producing it was, it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

   I wonder what the reaction would be here if I were to mock up a similar advert using 11/3 as a backdrop?

   John
   BarcaBlog

2. Trevor
   September 15th 2004 20:16

   I’m getting round to you, but I’m doing Sinn Fein again tonight.

3. nash
   September 16th 2004 23:10

   Bad translation, my folks…

   First, i’m a spanish guy so please forgive my bad english level.

   Second, i want to say that the information I found in the web is not all right and is creating trouble. I, personally, don’t want to be called Nazi or Fascist.

   This was an ad for EL PAIS, the most improtant newspaper in Spain. It is FALSe that this paper is communist and enjoyed the 11-S. It is true that EL PAIS supports the PSOE who are socialists but “socialism” is different in the USA than in europe. In USA it seems that socialism=communism, in UE socialism is a left-center way of doing politics. You could agree or not but they don’t dictate, kill and opress like communists or nazis did. They are nor authoritarists (autoritarios, i dont know the suitable word).

   Second, the unfortunate ad is erroneus and they have retired it in one day. But i often read things like “the ad makes laugh of the victims and it’s a provocation”. False: the ad uses the example of 11-S and 11-M to say “a lot of things could happen in just one day: imagine in three months”. They say three months because they advertise a special offer of three free months of subscription. Not more.

   It is a bad ad. They were wrong. But there’s nothing pollitical.

   And the image you have in this page is totally false. I received the two ads, the one with the 11-s and the 11-M. If you want to generate hate towards Spanish people, that’s the way. Keep it!

4. John Pawlenko
   September 17th 2004 11:43

   Hello Nash.

   Yes, some in the ‘blogging community’ can get ahead of themselves, as can the people who contribute comments to their postings.

   The fact is, if it considers itself the ‘most important newspaper in Spain’ – as you seem to do – it should have taken the possible consequences of its actions in producing the advert (using a tragic event to do what? Sell more newspapers) a little more seriously than it obviously did.

   Wasn’t it obvious that running such an ad would create such a fuss?

   As for both I, Trevor and many others reproducing the advert for others to see and therefore voice an opinion (and indeed, raise a fuss), how else were we supposed to do it? By telepathy?

   Trevor nor I are generating ‘hate towards Spain’. Idiots in El País and your man in La Moncloa don’t need our help to do that.

   John
   BarcaBlog

5. John Pawlenko
   September 17th 2004 11:46

   Oh, and one more thing.

   As Nash said, El País have issued an apology for the whole sorry episode.

   In Spanish:

   http://www.elpais.es/articuloCompleto.html?xref=20040916elpepuopi_1&type=Tes&anchor=elpporopi

   An English translation at Southern Watch:

   http://southernwatch.blogspot.com/

6. Marzo
   September 17th 2004 19:27

   “Bad translation”, Nash? Trevor’s is the best one I have seen (or written).

7. Escolar.net
   September 16th 2004 19:09 Un d�a da para mucho
   La �ltima campa�a de promoci�n de El Pa�s tiene indignada a media blogosfera. El primero en denunciar este anuncio, hasta donde he podido rastrear, fue Arcadi Espada. Despu�s lo recogieron muchos otros bloggers, entre ellos Franco Alem�n, que lo ha lan…