As the news from Libya sees the value of tyrants on the open market hit an all time high, enterprising UK experts in exploitation of public greed and gullibility have launched a major ad campaign for a new website, shopyourdictator.com.
The new commercial shows Arabic-looking types of all size and classes firing semi-automatic weapons in the air and waving their shoes about, all claiming to have earned as much as a million US dollars in small denomination notes for sending senior members of hated regimes to a show trial and certain death using a giant freepost envelope.
Rival services have rapidly sprung up, with newcomer ditchyourdespot.co.uk capturing the public imagination with commercials featuring an animated wheel-eyed mass-murderer shouting maniacally that his crimes against humanity demand he's sold down the river to ditchyourdespot, which promises to return your captive head of state in the condition you sent him if you find a better deal elsewhere. The ads have proven so popular a range of collectable figures of Dessie Despot has been launched with outfits including overly-medalled military officer, fundamentalist religious leader, and Middle East playboy in Biarritz.
Meanwhile the Advertising Standards Authority has criticised the adverts for not fully explaining the terms and conditions involved in claiming the bounty and demanded changes. The ads must now feature a disclaimer at the end noting that the value on the head of a mass-murdering sociopath can go down as well as up, depending on the price of oil, who's in the White House, and how obsessed the viewing public are with the X Factor instead of the news. That taking money to hand over a leader to his death can result in your own lynching in the event of a counter-coup by loyalists. And that Nick Clegg has no cash value.
