Is It Time to Eighty-Six Those Ketel One Ads?

If you live in the United States and can read, odds are good that you've noticed a series of ads that are nothing more than boldfaced words in a typeface that seems lifted from a Renaissance fair, set against an expanse of white space. Each ad conveys a brief and slightly cryptic message, such as:

Dear Ketel One Drinker

What you didn't learn in the third grade.

Or:

Dear Ketel One Drinker

Can we just say you looked great the other night.

Or:

Dear Ketel One Drinker

If you meet our new drinker, Mike, at the bar, please say hello.

That's it. No slogan. No Web site. No 800 number. A few words, then over and out.

The ads -- in lots of magazines, and all over the streets in New York and other cities -- may have prompted questions in your mind. What's with all the blank space? In the first line, why isn't there a comma after "Drinker"? Why isn't there a question mark after "other night"? Who is Mike?

And the most urgent question raised by this campaign: What can be done to make it stop?