Commercial Peeves

Nobody likes TV commercials much; at best, we accept them as sort of "the price of doing business". Some are actually clever and even informative.

Those are rare.

More likely, they provoke groans and a quick grab for the remote.

Here's a few of the current crop that really tick me off for one reason or another:

1. The "ITT Tech" commercials. You know, the ones that appear to be geared to brain-damaged slackers? The first one I saw aired was with the little snot who just likes to "lay on the beach, ride horses, and have fun." He's scheduling railroads, the commercial says. Would you want to be in a passenger train with this guy in charge?
Not me....
Then, we have the even-more-brain-damaged individual who appears to have an IQ slightly higher than my Labrador retriever. He's managing IT networks, they say, and has "another baby coming on the way". Evidently, English composition is not part of the ITT curriculum...
Now, brain-damaged people need to be employed too, but it seems these commercials are geared to cause people to over-reach a bit.

They are not as bad as:

3. The various "tech" schools that teach video-game design. You've seen the one with the two geeks sitting in a chair with their game controllers, supposedly working on a game by playing it? "Do you believe we get paid for this?" says one.

No.

Anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of programming and game design knows that it's hours of tedious coding and testing and re-testing.
Good luck on that career, guys.

Then, we have the new Toyota commercials with the monster trucks and gravelly-voiced Sam Eliot as the narrator. (at least, it sounds like him)
Apparently, Toyota is not content be the biggest car manufacturer in the world, and to have cornered the market on economy cars.
No, they want that big, manly truck market too, the one that's presently dominated by Ford and Dodge.
So, our heroes demonstrate the massive potency of these huge vehicles by towing incredible weights, hauling cargo containers up steep cliffs, and so forth, while Sam intones "cowboyisms" to show just how terribly manly these things are.

Now I'm sure there is an actual market in the construction trades for such things, but in my neighborhood the status symbol amongst the rednecks is to have a huge, diesel-powered "dualie" which they use for a family car. Plenty of accessory lights and Calvin-pissing-on-the-other-brand decals too.

Will these "good 'ol boys" ever buy Japanese Iron?

Who knows.

4. The American Express card commercials. Oh, excuse me, it's not a "credit card"...It's just The Card. And you don't just have one, you're a "Cardmember". Of course, if you're a cardmember, you get special privileges not available to common folk, stuff like concert tickets that mere mortals can't have.
Snooty to the nines.

Finally, we have:

5. The "Special K" commercial showing a woman who's contemplating skipping her breakfast to loose weight. Better to eat that healthy breakfast, which of course includes the cereal. No argument with all that, but the woman concerned looks like a stick! She's doing well to top out at 100 pounds.
With all the "body image" problems we have, as well as bulimia, anorexia, and so forth, this hardly seems to be sending the right message.
Now we hear of "diabulimia". This is a new phenomenon among juvenile diabetes sufferers, who deliberately short themselves on insulin so that they won't gain weight. Of course, they go blind and limbs fall off, but who cares as long as you're skinny!