Flagging an Error

Can someone flag down an editor at the Daily News, a New York newspaper printed in tabloid form? I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but I must point out that the paper hoisted an improper image in this full-page ad, which ran a year ago today. I’m vexed by what I came across during vexillology*.

Each year, the Puerto Rican Day Parade runs along Fifth Avenue in New York City on the second Sunday in June. The parade — one of the largest in the Big Apple — attracts millions of spectators.

To promote last year’s parade, the Daily News published this ad featuring Victor Cruz, a New York Giants wide receiver who has a Puerto Rican mother, and the Puerto Rican flag. The paper half mast amassed a master ad.

That’s Cruz, all right, but that flag isn’t right. It doesn’t symbolize the subject of the parade, and like an American headed to Paris, it needs to fly.

The flag’s colors are correct, but they’re not in the proper positions. The flag flying in the upper left depicts one of four Caribbean islands that constitute the Greater Antilles — but not the correct one. What’s pictured is the Cuban flag. To show a Puerto Rican’s true colors, those flag hues must be inverted.

The two flags are very similar. Cuba’s flag has a red triangle at its hoist end, with a lone white star in the triangle. Puerto Rico’s flag has a blue triangle at its hoist end, with a lone white star in the triangle. Cuba’s flag has five stripes — three blue, two white. Puerto Rico’s flag has five stripes — three red, two white.

The creator of this ad red, white and blew it. Someone on staff needs to march into the editing room and wave the proper flag. Otherwise, the Daily News is Cruz-ing for a bruising.


* Vexillology: the study of flags

Cuba's flag

Puerto Rico's flag