Manhattan Mini Storage takes a stand...

I've been meaning to mention this for ages -- and many other people have pontificated about it already -- but local storage company Manhattan Mini Storage has been putting up overtly liberal, political ads for ages now.

The question I've been wanting to ask by bringing attention to the ad campaign, is: is MMS the only company with the balls to come up with ads which, while jokey, nevertheless have an edge to them that makes the (almost certainly sympathetic New York City-residing) passer-by appreciate both the gag and the underlying political message?

One of the strangest things about living through the eight years of George Bush's Presidency has been the complete lack of sustained, reasoned, angry opposition to the dirty hallion and his henchmen, even when they were at their most insanely illogical tilt. Every time they predicted welcoming-hero-liberator crowds in Baghdad, I watched and waited for someone to say "bullshit!" and instead, there was at best a sort of querulous noise which translated as "better get in line with them again."

I'm scratching through my brains, and to the best of my knowledge, all I can recall from the past eight years of any company or corporation prepared to say "eff you" to the powers that be, was a coffee joint (might have been a Starbucks but not sure) which, when former Senator Trent Lott suggest that the U.S. would have been better off maintaining racial segregation, advertised a new beverage: the Trent Latte, separate but equal -- black coffee in a cup with separate milk in a jug!

Does anyone know of a corporation as brazen as MMS? They got even edgier with this one, from a year or two ago:

[N.B: from BoingBoing, Jan 13th, 2003: "Kramerbooks, a bookstore/eatery just off Dupont Circle in Washington DC, is selling a new coffee drink, the Trent Lotte: A glass of black coffee, and a glass of steamed milk, in separate but equal portions."]