These days you can’t spit without hitting a healthcare reform ad ($600 million spent and counting).

Take this full-page New York Times advertisement from an outfit called the “Employment Policies Institute,” which describes itself as “a non-profit research organization dedicated to studying public policy issues surrounding employment growth. In particular, EPI focuses on issues that affect entry-level employment.”

The Times ad shows a guy in a hospital johnny –

[Wait a second – why does it have to be a “johnny”? Why couldn’t it be a joey? For that matter, why is a john (according to the American Heritage Dictionary) 1. A toilet. 2. A man who is a prostitute’s customer?

[And – come to think of it – why is a barfight called a Who Struck John? Who Struck Joe would do just fine.]

Anyway, the guy in the hospital, er, gown is bending over while a Doc pulls on a latex glove.

“You may feel some slight discomfort,” the headline says.

Body copy:

Current health reform plans increase insurance premiums for millions of Americans. Seniors suffer cuts in Medicare. Comfortable?

The ad directs readers to rethinkreform.com, which in its About Us section reveals absolutely nothing about who’s funding this media campaign.

Suffice it to say, the funders have a financial interest in the final disposition of healthcare reform.

Comfortable?