WHEN "CLEAN AIR" IS ON THE AIR, WHO'S BUYIN'?

UDN was already on this a little, so a tip of my "Blue State" "don't blame me" Illinois Ball Cap to him.

There's this TV ad floating around, it's about some guy running a restaurant and bar in downstate Illinois (one of the cross streets is "Taylorville" but that doesn't mean the bar is in Taylorville--There's a Quincy Street in Chicago). Anyhow, the guy's talking about how he thought the smoking ban would ruin him and it turns out he's making more money and more people are enjoying his food. He's real happy with the smoking ban. His customers are real happy with the smoking ban and the viewers are all supposed to be real happy they're real happy.

If some charitable organization wants to put on those ads, it works for me. Free speech is a nice thing.

My problem is the credit (or responsibility) for the ad is a little tough to read on the "credits". They kind of duck and weave and I can't tell whether my tax dollars are paying for what amounts to a political ad or not. If they are, I'm pissed.

Now you might say, "This is no different than the DUI warning ads." You would be wrong. Those ads are trying to get you conform with a law that has public safety and harm to others implications. This ad is nothing more (assuming it is government-funded) than my government telling me how smart they were a year ago. It's not trying to get me to do or not do anything. It's just telling me big brother knows best.

This is different from the DUI ads, The Turkey Fryer Fire ads (my personal favorite) or even the tire pressure ads. This is just "See, we told you it would be better!"

The ad doesn't run that often but I'll try to catch who's actually ponying up for it. The circumstantial evidence is that it is our State Gov't.

Am I the only one who has that ripped off feeling when he sees it?