Saturday, May 24, 2008

This Week in Memery



The "shocking"-Craig's List/Ebay-listing meme runs into the brick wall of the no irony zone as a German couple are arrested after posting the following on Ebay:

"Offering my nearly new baby for sale, as it has gotten too loud. It is a male baby, nearly 28 inches (70 cm) long and can be used either in a baby carrier or a stroller," police quoted the ad as reading.


And the AP, as usual, runs the piece as a straight news item.

Now, color me insensitive, but this reads more like tired parental joke than an attempt at infant marketing...

just goes to show, airports ain't the only place you should not joke.

UPDATE: missing from the initial AP wire story:
Tanja, has insisted that the whole scheme was simply a joke in very poor taste.

"I would never give up my beloved Merlin," she said in an interview.

"On the contrary. I just did it for a bit of fun, and simply wanted to see whether someone would actually reply to the offer."

Police failed to see the funny side of the auction however, and baby Merlin is now in the custody of regional child care services while the investigation continues.

from the Telegraph.

as I thought.

Bad Idea