Washington, May 26 (ANI): A Republican candidate in rural Idaho has been accused of plagiarizing one of President Barack Obama’s famous speeches.
Vaughn Ward, a former US Marine Corps officer and CIA operative who served in Iraq, is seeking the GOP Congressional nomination.
According to The Telegraph, his campaign biography states that he “spent most of his years on the family farm in Shoshone, Idaho” and had “developed his strong work ethic and learned the value of dependability” from that time.
But Lucas Baumbach, a local party activist, produced a YouTube video that suggested Ward derived greater influence from Obama, the Harvard-educated Democrat currently occupying the White House.
The video shows Obama addressing the 2004 Democratic National Convention with the words: “We stand on the crossroads of history. We can make the right choices and meet the challenges that face us.”
It then cuts to Ward speaking in January and saying: “As we stand on the crossroads of history, I know we can make the right choices and meet the challenges that lay before us.”
There were several other close similarities between the two speeches.
A spokesman for Ward said the furore over the video was much ado about nothing. (ANI)
Furore over Burger King’s ‘raunchy’ sandwich ad
Washington, July 1 (ANI): A print advertisement of Burger King’s sandwich in Singapore has come under fire because of its “distasteful” and unappetizing references to oral sex.
The ad for the “BK Super Seven Incher” shows the “mind-blowing” sandwich near the open mouth of a wide-eyed, red-lipsticked woman accompanied by the suggestive tagline: “It’ll blow your mind away.”
“Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled,” Fox News quoted the ad as saying further.
The ad is a limited time promotion in Singapore-a society known around the world for its strict government controls of social conduct.
And now advertising experts have said that the ad leaves little to the imagination and should be discontinued.
Mark Duffy, a blogger and an advertising copywriter at a major New York City firm, said that the advertisement was among the “worst” he had ever seen in more than 17 years of his experience.
“I’ve seen a lot of sexual innuendo ads and this is about the worst, especially for something as mainstream as Burger King. I was a little repulsed by it. It’s really misogynistic to women and it’s also unappetizing,” said Duffy.
Duffy said that the woman’s face in the advertisement appeared to have been retouched to make it look like a doll, and that the American cheese on the sandwich seemed a little too white.
“It’s outlandish. They obviously didn’t hire a top-notch food photographer,” he said.
Duffy, who called on Burger King to terminate the ad, said: “It’s really distasteful on the appetite level and on the social level. The ad pretty much speaks for itself. How much more do they have to spell it out for you?”
Lauren Kuziner, a spokeswoman for Burger King, said that the campaign was produced by a local Singaporean agency, and not by the company’s U.S. advertising firm, Crispin Porter plus Bogusky.
“Burger King Corp. values and respects all of its guests. This print ad is running to support a limited time promotion in the Singapore market and is not running in the U.S. or any other markets. The campaign is supported by the franchisee in Singapore and has generated positive consumer sales around this limited time product offer in that market,” said Kuziner in a statement.
He, however, refused to identify the Singapore-based firm, and did not respond to requests for comment on whether Burger King had received complaints in connection with the ad. (ANI)