It’s the Little Things: TV Edition

As a response to Stoutcat’s  post of yesterday, I got to thinking about the insidious nature of television commercials, and started a quick compilation of “little things” which, taken singly seem innocent enough, but which, when bombarded throughout the 24-hour cycle, are little short of damning in their  flaunting of  flat-out rudeness and out-and-out celebration of bad behavior…

• In one of the Nikon D-5000 ads, the all-too-full-of-himself photographer insists on getting his fashion show pictures by blocking the other cameramen
• Miller Lite depicts an antique appraiser joking about dropping a customer’s vase
• Not to be outdone, another Miller Lite commercial shows an indignant delivery man taking back product because a nightclub has a reserved section for paying customers
• Volkswagen commercials build on the old child’s game of “Punch Buggy” (hitting a chum on the shoulder at the sight of a VW) by having adults do the same
• Cat Genie has unhappy cat owners throwing out litter boxes, one of which almost hits a jogger
• In an Advil commercial, a woman rudely leaves a shopping basket full of other pain relievers in mid-aisle
• Let’s not forget Geico’s Charlie Daniels, as he embarrasses himself in a French restaurant, and then takes a customer’s bread stick
• Quality Inn has John Ratzenberger at a buffet line heaping his plate to the point of overflowing onto the floor and then walking away… his wife just watches and walks away as well
• Allstate shows a man being hit by a car and then asks, “Are you in good hands?”
• Starbucks shows the result of an affair uncovered – a slap
• Lite and Fit yogurt has a woman slurping an empty container like a five year-old
• A talking Super 8 sign berates a man (on his own property) for not taking a vacation

And so it goes. It’s reached the point where a reclusive billionaire feels the need to remind us of core values, putting his money where his mouth is in a series of public service commercials:

Sigh. Has it really come to this?

Alan Speakman