Found this ad in the Sept 3 issue of Business Week. It depicts a big glass Buddha, accompanied by a list of  things you apparently need to do. Among them:

“Shop La Boqueria in Barcelona”
“Be seen upstairs at Repast.”
“Fawn over the cheese cart at the Inn at Little Washington.”

So what’s with the big Buddha? Is the message here that we should try meditation? Practice compassion? Hear at least one Dharma talk?

Nope! Instead, the caption to the photo urges that we should “Be the first to rate the hippest restaurant on Zagat,” which, we learn, we can do with the “complimentary access” to Zagat’s ratings and reviews that comes with having a Visa Signature Card.

Of course! How silly of us not to immediately intuit that. After all, a close look at the ad reveals that what’s being depicted isn’t a temple (at least, not in the conventional sense). It’s a “hip restaurant.”

As regular readers of the Horse know, there’s no shortage of Buddha Bars, Buddha Lounges, and other trendy big-ticket eatery/drinkeries that like to play the Dharma-Decor angle to bring people in. But when one shows up in a Visa ad? That means they’re becoming common.

Stay tuned til next time when we show you the interior of P.J. McBuddha’s Good-Time Emporium.

OK. Not really. (But then, you never know.)