Tysons Corner in Trouble Over Vietnam Memorial-Invoking Shopping Ad

In the post-9/11 era, invoking the memory of those brave men and women who have died for their country is a profoundly moral way to... get people to buy fancy clothes, of course!

Also: it's very offensive to some people, namely the veterans who didn't die.

For example: consider the Vietnam War, America's most famous "Whoops!" incident. The utter tragedy and meaninglessness of this war, in which 50,000 Americans died, is reflected in the design of the Vietnam War Memorial constructed to remember it: just a long wall with one deceased soldier's name after the other, cutting below the terrain. The whole point is to go and look at it and feel extremely sad for days, about war.

Curious then that Tysons Corner Center in Virginia, that big dumb mall, would play off the design for its latest advertising campaign.

Blogger Dave Stroup of Why I Hate DC took a snapshot on the Metro of the ad, which appears to replace the names of Vietnam's dead soldiers with the names of shops -- CAPITALISM SHOPS.

Upon hearing of this terribly subversive marketing strategy, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund publicly condemned the shopping center, because come on.

And the troops hold much sway! According to the Examiner, Tysons "reacted quickly to condemnation from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and ordered the immediate removal of 440 of the ads from the Metrorail cars where they have been posted."

Never forget.

Jim Newell writes for Wonkette and IvyGate.