Clothing site features naked man in children's ad

The uptight can sometimes not understand the liberal.

Some feel that's why some Americans don't understand the French. Yet who can possibly understand how it was that the French clothing retailer La Redoute managed not to notice a naked man in an ad featuring children?

The way the BBC exposes it, the picture was there for all to see for almost a day before someone realized that there, in the water behind the happy little kids, was a happy old chap, naked as the day is long.

Because most people in the world have nothing better to do than stare at pictures of naked people, the image wafted about the globe like a rumor of Castro's death.

Oddly, no one seems to know how something so blatant could have been overlooked. La Redoute declared on its Facebook page that it "apologizes for the photo published on its site and is doing what's necessary to remove it."

You will be transported into Tuesday when I tell you that the cheery members of the Internet hive seized upon the image to make their own meme-ish efforts. These have been happily curated by the charming eyes at the Daily Dot.

Who cannot be moved by the University of California at Davis pepper spray policeman attempting to affect a swift cover-up of the nudity?

Some will, no doubt, wonder whether this might have been a deliberate ploy by La Redoute to gain redoubtable publicity.

One might have thought, though, that an image of a naked man in an ad featuring children might not have been in the finest possible taste.

Might a head be rolling down the Champs-Elysees for this error?