So I couldn’t help but notice, reading The Swan Song Heard ‘Round the World just now, an odd collusion between ad and editorial. See if you can spot it, too:


Yeah. Kristol Swan Song, meet glass swan.

Which: Coincidence? Probably. But, then, it’s not like ad-news synergy is anything new…


Very Significant Update: My colleagues and I have done some digging, and it turns out that the advertised swan in question—the “Love” swan, a “symbol of elegance, faithfulness, and monogamy” and part of “the Steuben collection of symbolic miniature animals known as Hand Coolers”—is, though manufactured by Steuben Glass…made of crystal. Which means that the Times’s page places the Kristol Swan Song next to a Crystal Swan. Which means in turn that, in the matter of Synergy v. Coincidence, I’m leaning closer to Synergy…