More magazines.  We've used up random stashes of frequent flyer miles and now we're blessed with a wealth of mailbox clutter.  The Economist was Marc's idea, though.  I do get a fair amount of trivia from it, and its Euro-drollness is amusing, but I'm still embarrassed that it's arrived at our home, given its general "let them eat cake" tone.

Still, nestled among last week's sere ad copy touting posts for directorates of far-flung universities was an ad that had me baffled and giggly.  Let me introduce you to teh homies at Zurich American Insurance Company, whose new tagline is . . . Because change happenz.  That's right, they're using the Hip-Hop Z.

Now let's walk away from the ad for a moment, because you're probably trying to collect yourself in light of this cognitive dissonance.  I know I was.  Let's look first to the authorities at Language Log: Well, they're not sure, but they think the Hip-Hop Z got started with hip-hop and moved to the hackers.  Fair enough.  As they had no follow-up to that piece of March 2007 I'm going to rely on their call.

Okay, so now we get to Zurich.  I've been to Zurich.  Beautiful city, glorious architecture, great chocolate, and Zurifaescht back in 2004 was eminently memorable.  The people?  Not so much.  Let's just say that our intrepid friend Margarete had to grab a water pitcher at one of the city's finest restaurants because we were being grievously ignored.  And there wasn't a moment's apology for their indifference, believe me.  The whole time we were there we felt like crazy aggressive foreigners, even among friends who could communicate in one or more of the official languages of the country.  It's just a rather stuffy place, one that I would not call avant-garde, diverse, or trendy, but rather sedate, restrained and traditional.

So where the hell does the Hip-Hop Z come from?  Sorry for shouting, but I just don't get it!  To whom is the slogan appealing?  Wealthy hip-hop moguls?  Agents of wealthy hip-hop moguls?  Wealthy hackers?  I'm not buying it.  Zurich alone as a name conveys nothing more than sedate, restrained, and traditional, and trying to take Zurich beyond that, in an ad with tediously dull copy and artwork, by adding the Because change happenz tagline?  Just isn't happening.