What you see here is an advertisement for the Belgian radio network "Radio 1", operated by the public broadcaster VRT. Its tagline "meteen mee" means "get it right away" or "get it at on(c)e". To illustrate this slogan, the ad shows six pictures of president Bush. On the first one he is smiling, and the caption reads:

2002. When things are not going well on the domestic front, divert attention and start a war abroad. In Iraq for instance.

On pictures two through five Bush looks more and more worried and the captions read:

Iraqi resistance is persistent. There are more victims than we expected. It is costing more than we had budgeted. And then, the levees break and New Orleans is flooded, while the National Guard is in Iraq.

In the last picture Bush is smiling again and saying:

When things are not going well domestically, divert attention and start a war abroad. Maybe in Iran?

Mind you, the purpose of this advertising campaign by the Belgian public broadcasting service is not officially to convince people that president Bush has hideous plans or dishonest intentions. As with any advertising campaign, its first purpose is to catch attention. In addition it intends to convey the message that Radio 1 is reliable and competent, providing its listeners with information and analysis, providing background and perspective, so that you "get it right away". The campaign targets an information-hungry audience of professionals, intellectuals and students.

There are, however, a few problems with this campaign. First, it contains a factual error. Though the pressure on Iraq to give up its weapons of mass destruction was heightened in September 2002, the war did not start until March 2003.

Second, the ad does not convince me of Radio 1's competence. All I see is that the public broadcasting service is taking the same old path of anti-American clichés and Bush-bashing and is so proud of it that it is advertising it.

Third, the ad's reference to Iran is particularly inappropriate in view of the fact that Europe's endless 'negotiations' with Iran about its nuclear program have been a total failure.

The public broadcaster VRT gets more than a quarter billion euros a year from the government and earns some forty million euros from the radio commercials it broadcasts. Consequently at least 85% of this campaign is being paid for by the taxpayer. [hat tip]