Save the...oh, forget it. Just steal everything

If I were Christopher Moore I'd be a little on the miffed side. I wonder if he drinks Mountain Dew?

Fluke is one helluva book. Forgive me, but it is a whale of a good story. Its originality alone sets it apart from most of the fiction on the market today.

That's why I get such a red ass when ad people (heartless, soulless creatures that they are) decide to steal. Moore wrote a great book. An ad guy took some of the book's greatest elements, built a quick little commercial with some BBC whale footage, and now is trying to sell Mt. Dew with an idea that is not only now lacking in originality, but stinking off a rip-off artist's grubby hands.

{--Mt. Dew-~-Moore--}

I don't blame the Dew people as much as I do the ad people. My guess is the Dew folks don't have any idea they are marketing their product with the stolen booty of another man's soul.

Or something like that.

Moore is a class act. I shot him an e-mail (he still uses an AOL address) and asked him how many e-mails he had gotten about the ad. He wrote back and said he had gotten a lot and his attorney had fired off what he called a "hey, cut it out letter."

The ad wizards that produced it work at BBDO, one of the big Madison Avenue agencies that gets a lot of work on an international stage. The creative director, Bill Bruce, is fairly famous in the business. I suspect he doesn't read very much. I've e-mailed the agency asking for on-the-record comment. However, as my indignation can only be aired in blog form (and not in my role as Mr. Honest TV Reporter Fella), I suspect I'll be summarily dismissed.

After the James Garner, "Nobody Knows it But Me" poem and "Terry Tate and the Great Felcher Conspiracy" I felt like maybe I'd had my fill of irresponsible admen. I guess not.

If anything, it has given me the opportunity to communicate ever-so-briefly with one of my favorite authors. And I got to use the phrase "stolen booty of another man's soul."

That's gotta be worth something.