Half Empty or All Empty?

Are these people nuts?

Do they have money to burn, and can’t find any better way to get rid of it?

Wait, wait. I’m forgetting my 2007 New Year’s resolution to not wax sarcastic about the perpetrators of ads that I find to be crying out for a makeover. So I’ll try to stay calm and civil.

But this one doesn’t make it easy. I found it in a recent issue of The Wall Street Journal.

And what is it advertising? Well, take a quick guess.

We see a little girl sitting on a weather-beaten bench. She’s holding and contemplating a silver loving cup. It’s hard to tell where the bench is situated. It appears to be resting on a brick-tiled floor, and behind her is a gray horizon that could be sky, desert or water.

And running just below the back railing of the bench in small white letters is what presumes to be the headline: