This ad, said to be sponsored by the group “Citizens for Capital Punishment,” ran in Monday’s Terre Haute Tribune-Star after being rejected by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, according to Tom Ungar of the Chicago ad agency the Ungar Group. Ungar insists the ad is serious and pro-capital punishment, although he acknowledged that numerous callers have seen it instead as a parody.

Ungar said the CCP is a newly formed Chicago group that prefers to let the ad speak for itself. Was he disappointed that so many people saw the ad as anti-capital punishment? “You never can predict what will happen with a piece of communication,” Ungar said. “It’s provocative to the point of getting people to discuss the issue.”

This article appears in June 15 • 2001.

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