This post is part of our Ads Gone Bad series. Share your thoughts and memories of this ad in the comments, and be sure to check out our other posts on marketing gone wrong.

Verizon made an ad this summer showing a guy scaling a junkyard fence to get his hands on an LG Dare phone, only to run into two junkyard dogs -- chained and snarling pit bulls. Pit bull lovers didn't like the casual depiction of animal neglect and cruelty. Animal rights groups have been working for a long time to stop people from chaining up dogs in their yard, abusing them and generally using them as a street weapon.

Verizon at first insisted that it would keep running the ad. Then concerned dog owners got the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals involved. PETA first tried to talk with Verizon and explain why the ad annoyed people: the dogs in the commercial had ears docked in a "fight crop" and pit bulls are the most abused breed of dogs.

Verizon refused to meet to discuss the situation, PETA says. So they put out an action alert. After Verizon got 7,000 e-mails from angry animal lovers, they took down the ad.

See other examples of Ads Gone Bad.

Mr. Bernanke's first move as Fed Chairman will be an historic one. Not only did he drop the Fed Funds rate by 50 bps, but he did so in the face of gold breaking out in a major way. As the U.S. stock market was booming on the Fed's decision, gold also rallied, hitting $723 in yesterday's trading, up from $650 in mid August. The metal has also broken through its major resistance level at $690.

While gold has been going through a major bull market this entire decade, one would expect inflation to be going higher and bond prices crashing, similar to the 1970s. But that has not been the case. While there was some inflation as the economic expansion aged, it was by no means hyper-inflationary.

Are gold and equity prices now correlated? It sound crazy, but that is the way they are trading now.

One warning. Gold is an eerily correct commodity; do not dismiss its ascent lightly. While equities will continue to rally for a while, keep an eye on gold. It is telling us there is plenty of cash around the world. And history tells us when there is plenty of cash around the world, people will do some unwise things with it.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose today by 187 points, a 1.41% rise. The NASDAQ rose by 32 points, or 1.28% and the vaunted S&P 500 Index by 22 points or 1.52%. The markets were relatively benign until the details emerged from the Federal Reserve's Beige Book.

The Beige Book is released eight times per year, and is the collective wisdom of the 12 different Fed Governors. The news was better than expected, and the 10-year treasury note, which was topping out at 5.25%, began to sink and investors re-focused on the equities market.

The details from the Beige Book report was just the music the equity investor wanted -- needed -- to hear. Capital goods orders were picking up and the job market was, indeed, stabilizing. To boot, the real symphony continued when the Fed indicated there was no upward pressure on wage prices, thus stemming one of the legs of inflation. Consumer spending appears to remain in a healthy pattern, with general retail sales up a surprising 1.6%, versus the expectations of 0.8%. The consumer is still in a position to sustain economic growth.

The indicators from the Federal Reserve basically put the "R -word": Recession, back into the closet.