But I thought advertising and consumerism were the root of all the trouble in the world

File this in the ever-burgeoning Things I Was Never Meant to Understand file. Hot-shot ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day commissioned Wisconsin artiste Norbert Kox to create an image for the Art Directors Club's 86th annual competition (www.adcawards.org ). Kox, according to the SF Chronicle (Vision of the end? ), has painted religious themes for more than a generation. What astonishes me about this particular work is what it depicts: damned near every cliche spouted by the anti-advertising crowd today. The evils of "consumerism" are all over the landscape here. According to Kox, at least the message of his art, is that oil-addicted owners of SUVs, together with violent Christians, are unleashing the Apocalypse. Not to mention Armageddon. Hey, I'm as eager as most anybody for lesser dependence on petroleum, especially when so much of it is in the backyards of people not exactly distinguished by their rationality. But the overt political message here is as misguided as the decision to use it as the symbol of a gathering of advertising people. Gotta wonder what people working on the Hummer account who attend this thing, if any, will be thinking. Wonder how much TBWA ponied up for this thing? In the immortal word of Kermit the Frog, "Sheesh!"