Starbucks has recently put up an ad for its new instant coffee product, featuring a parody of a person standing up and getting mad at a healthcare town hall. Obviously, Starbucks is making fun of conservatives and people who don't want bureaucrats making their healthcare decisions.
Now let me tell you why this could be a good thing.
This means that an image of an American protesting to his government, engaging in public debate, is a sufficiently recognizable image that it can be parodied with success to a broad-based audience. The health care town halls captured the attention of enough of the public that we now recognize an iteration of this image, without overt reference. Although people might engage in pissing contests about how many people went to a rally, or whose polling data trumps whose, we can't deny that advertising is the language of our popular culture-- and policy debate is now a part of it.
