TV Ads That'll Scare the Dollars Out of You

Pushing Your Buttons by Playing on Fear

I'm mad as heck-but I'm afraid we're all going to keep on 'taking it'. If you're watching live TV, you're probably wondering, like I am, how we ever lived through the dark ages of manual button-pushing. You know, actually getting up to adjust volume, channel setting - how Neanderthal!

What's Neanderthal to me these days is how advertising agencies ruthlessly and scientifically target their message to the lowest common denominator. That's why you're often insulted by the dreck that separates the segments of your favorite show. What's worse is, inevitably, it always seems to be the dumbest commercial that appears the most. Worse still, for my money, is for the sake of the almighty buck, those who make TV commericals are driven to actually disturb you so their product makes a lasting impression on your brain.

Witness the recent set of ads for Volkswagen. By the way, what happened there? For the last 10-plus years, VW had some of
most tolerable car ads going...They'd play off of some light, cute theme with some smiling, light, cute 20-somethings to get their amusing point across. Now it's all about having an everyday chat with your friend in the front seat of her new Jetta, when all of a sudden, Wham! - You've been T-boned by someone not paying attention at the intersection. Lucky for you, that new Jetta has side airbags that just saved your life. Fine. Talk to me about the incredible safety of the car. Show me the square, steel frame in a diagram like Saturn did years ago. Even show an airbag deploying into a crash test dummy's face. But don't subject me to a shock to the system that's taking advantage of our natural empathy for others in order to move some more wheels off the lot. It's insulting, backwards, and just plain wrong.

It really bothered me the first few times I saw these VW ads. Hey, I've been in a few accidents. Those commerials don't exactly bring back any good memories (I was lucky to have suffered no injuries except seatbelt bruising-others haven't been so lucky, and I'm sure they don't like these ads). By the way, how would you feel about your three or five-year old regularly taking in these disturbing messages?