Depending on where you look - the Ad Council appears to be privately funded or federally funded - or both.
The US Government and the powers behind it have a very intricate network of "private" organizations and "funds" that basically operate as an arm of the government power structure. Think "Federal Reserve" - which is NOT an arm of the Federal government - but might as well be. Another way to understand how this system works is to go do some reading of "Confessions Of An Economic Hitman" (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man ) - because he lays out in some detail how pieces of this system work.
The fact of the matter is that your tax dollars are helping to fund this.
But you're also correct that you can walk out of the movie theatre if you don't like it. But then you're going to have to argue with them about getting your money back.
The other fact of the matter is - Coke didn't need to go to the Ad Council to get this ad made. They're perfectly capable of doing it themselves. They're operating in collusion with somebody who has an agenda - and is using Coke as a shield for the underlying message.
My response is this: If we're all the same under the covers - then get rid of all the Affirmative Action laws - and every single law that favors one group over another. Isn't that what the skeletons are showing. Maybe they ought to show one skeleton working really hard - and the other one sitting around watching TV and smoking dope and let people make up their minds on whether all skeletons are REALLY the same.
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Funny how Christians used to go around the world doing things like inventing languages for tribes who had none so they could record the history of their people and communicate with each other and the world. Funny how Christians used to go around the world teaching cannibals it wasn't ok to ritually eat each other. Funny how Christians teach that we should have love for ALL people - even your enemies.
That's some really hateful shit right there.