The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week: Dec. 7

4. SodaStream's Super Slam

Last week a bunch of bumbling British bureaucrats idiotically banned a benign SodaStream (SODA) advertisement. Because of their bone-headed behavior, the commercial became an online blockbuster.

This week the make-your-own-soda maker mocked those same pusillanimous pen-pushers by pronouncing that it will reproduce the wildly popular ad during February's Super Bowl. They plan on paying a pretty penny of more than $3.7 million for the pleasure, an investment action we normally would adjudge to be absolutely asinine.

Not this time, however. As you may have ascertained, it's got us so antsy, we're alliterating.

But we'll stop now. We know it gets annoying.

Israel-based SodaStream announced Tuesday it will kick off its 2013 global ad campaign during Super Bowl XLVII by showing an updated version of its ad titled "The SodaStream Effect." The spot, which highlights SodaStream's sustainability benefit by showing scenes of soda bottles suddenly disappearing, was yanked from transmission prior to air last week in the U.K. by Clearcast, the British version of the FCC, for being harmful to the likes of Coca-Cola (KO) and Pepsi (PEP).

"The majority decided that the ad could be seen to tell people not to go to supermarkets and buy soft drinks, instead help to save the environment by buying a SodaStream. We thought it was denigration of the bottled drinks market," reasoned Clearcast.

Balderdash! Baloney! Pure knuckle-headed nonsense! (Oops, sorry.)

Seriously, what a ridiculous reason for censoring an absolutely innocuous ad. All Clearcast did -- aside from making Brits wonder if their regulators are in the pockets of the beverage giants -- is turn the commercial into a YouTube sensation that has now garnered more than 1.2 million views. And now SodaStream is using that leverage to introduce its products to another 100 million viewers during the world's biggest football game slash media event.

"Our commitment to invest in the Super Bowl is in line with our broader efforts to significantly increase our market penetration in the U.S. and globally," said Daniel Birnbaum, CEO of SodaStream.

Bully for you Birnbaum! We here at the Dumbest Lab back your battle against those bowdlerizing bastards ... even if our exhortations do err on the side of exasperating!

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