Irish Marketing

Oh, werd?
The Irish are extremely popular in America (though it wasn't always that way). The prevalence of Irish imagery in advertising and culture hits a peak, though, every time St. Patrick's Day rolls around...
Every twelve months or so, Irish Springs soap bars advertise their existence. In the most recent example of this advertising, blue-eyed girls in some sort of conglomeration of European traditional dress saunter through a field of green before being flushed down a magic drain filled with Irish Springs soap. A narrator with an Irish accent only believable to those who hang leprechauns outside their house every March describes the wonders of the soap while flute music bounces in the background. I'm not entirely sure what makes Irish Springs soap Irish other than the fact that it is dyed green.
I haven't watched children's television in a while, but I imagine that Lucky Charms are still represented by a leprechaun who has trouble with possessive pronouns. ("They've stolen me lucky charms!") In addition to his pot of gold, Lucky can't do without his red balloons which of course stem from the Irish tradition of.. um.. ballooning...? Lucky Charms cereal is definitely not part of a traditional Irish breakfast. To make Lucky Charms a more accurate representation of an Irish morning, you would need marshmallows shaped like bacon, baked beans, and various meat puddings. Also, ditch the leprechaun.
As I have knocked on doors the past few days, I have seen posters and stickers of mugs of beer, goofy looking leprechauns, and rainbows (which I honestly mistook for a political statement like, "I support Irish people and gay rights!...and beer!" but I was wrong). All I can say is I hope middle-America never decides to "celebrate" Black History Month by hanging posters of ethnic and racial stereotypes.
Oh, and green beer. What the hell?