I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

(I have to appeal to the U2 fan(s) in my audience - 'they' are the only ones who have commented on this blog recently.)

It's really a little thing.  A tiny, minute detail that doesn't matter to anyone else in Croatia.

But it's become an obsession for me.  

We got back from the States a week after the innauguration.  As soon as we drove out of the airport parking lot I saw a billboard advertising a new men's magazine ingeniuously titled 'The Men'.  It had Barack Obama on the cover.  

And it was amusing to me.  'Hmmm, a new Croatian magazine is featuring my new president', I thought, 'I wonder what they have to say?'

So, a few days later I asked if they had it at a local kiosk where I bought the newspaper.  'No', said the woman at the newspaper stand while wearing a confused look.

Then I made the trip from Osijek to Orahovica.  I saw the billboard 5 more separate times, but still no magazine in the kiosk.  Then we drove up to the northern part of Croatia for a church conference.  10 more billboards - still no magazines.  And I don't even get an apologetic look at the stand.  They don't know what in heaven's name I'm talking about.  (Yes, I do know how to ask in Croatian, and they give my wife and friend the same look when they ask in fluent Croatian.)

Does McDonald's advertise it's new Triple Decker, Heart-attack-in-a-box Big Mac and not have it at the drive-through?  Does Michael Jordan pose in his new Hanes on television for naught? How do you advertise and not have the product available - EVER?

Am I just a spoiled American?