This image was lost some time after publication.

Richard Rapaport is VERY concerned about the rise of "snide advertising." It's eating a hole in our national soul! The ennui, the decline of sophistication, the "nanny-nanny boo-boo that passes for wit these days." Some might say that advertising never had a golden age of wit and sophistication, but Rapaport argues in a long Ad Age piece that the current trend is one that historians will look back on with disdain. Is our entire society becoming less civil, right down to the way we sell things to each other? It's an important issue. Below, Gawker chief Nick Denton's analysis of this controversial topic:

This image was lost some time after publication.