OBL in ads

By:  April 20, 2011 Categories: 

Osama bin Laden, also known as Usama bin Laden, Usama bin Ladin, Ussamah Bin Ladin and Oussama Ben Laden, is no more. But like many notorious people, OBL was used in many ads and will probably continue to do so. He often functions as a metaphor for something that’s evil or someone that’s incredibly hard to find.

Oh well, here’s 22 ads of OBL before American forces planted a bullet in his head. Some good, some bad, but I’ll leave that judging to you.

Latest

Cake and Timepieces

Cake and Timepieces

There’s the more modern Shanghai, beautiful lanes full of expensive yoga studios or artisan coffee shops, lined with the London Plane Tree (法国梧桐) and the Wukang Mansion (武康大楼), and renovated parks like the North Bund (北外滩) and West Bund (西岸). There’s also the Shanghai as the international metropolis and a symbol of China’s rising economic […]
June 23, 2026
A candle in Minnesota

A candle in Minnesota

It’s Wednesday morning, and I’m in Saint Paul, Minnesota, attending the morning mass at St. Bernard’s church. It’s about twenty years since I last attended a mass, and the first time I’ve ever done so voluntarily. I’m sure I’m drawn to this church near my Airbnb, compelled to go in, but I find it hard […]
June 14, 2026
Revisiting Columbine

Revisiting Columbine

Growing up in the Netherlands, it’s not immediately obvious (even to myself) that the history of the United States is also partly mine, but through TV series and movies — as well as the news — it’s also a country I lived in and grew up in. And unlike presidential elections or the September 11th […]
June 8, 2026
Rich People Park

Rich People Park

We’re in TaiKoo Li QianTan (前滩太古里), a brand new, high-end shopping mall near the Huangpu River in Pudong. It’s a beautiful complex with four levels, viewing bridges, walls of white steel and vertical gardens (the first I’ve seen that actually look like on an architectural drawing), and paths of bright bricks alternating with patches of […]
June 5, 2026