Tysons Corner ad shocks Vietnam vets

Insensitive? Ungrateful? Who knows what was in the mind of the creator of such a stunt. The problem is, it just used one of the most emotionally charging images in this nation. Maybe since The Wall has received so much notoriety because of Memorial Day they thought they could cash in on it. The problem is, anyone trying to cash in on what was already paid for with the deaths of these men and women, has the wrath of the living to contend with.

Tysons Corner ad shocks Vietnam vets
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
06/09/09 3:36 PM EDT

Prominent Vietnam veterans and their families are appalled by an advertisement for a major local mall that shows a woman in front of a wall that strongly resembles the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, with the names of the center’s stores appearing instead of the names of the war dead.

Tysons Corner Center reacted quickly to condemnation from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and ordered the immediate removal of 440 of the ads from the Metrorail cars where they have been posted, mall spokeswoman Allison Fischer said Tuesday afternoon.

The Tysons ad features a black granite wall engraved with a list of shops over the slogan, “It’s time to defrost.” The store names are presented in virtually the same font on a highly reflective surface like the Vietnam Memorial. There is an image in the background of a what could be a rose, a flower commonly left at the Wall.

“There’s no question my generation will see this as The Wall,” said Marshall Carter, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange and a veteran of two tours in Vietnam. “There’s no getting around it. It jumps right off the page.”

Jan Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Veteran Memorial Fund, said the ad is an “obvious and blatant misuse of the image of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which has a serious place in America's heart and soul.” More than 58,000 American men and women died in the war.
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Tysons Corner ad shocks Vietnam vets