It is rare that a TV commercial infuriates me every time it comes on. Now, I dislike a lot of commercials out there, and think a lot are stupid, and I wonder who is the idiot that gets paid to come up with some of those ads. I get tired of ads that show between every commercial. There are even some ads that I like. However, this ad that is showing recently has actually convinced me to rant about it on the internet. Gasp.
This is a lawyer ad. I'm assuming it's a divorce lawyer, based on the content of the ad (so I guess it does tie into the current topic in English). The ad depicts a couple sitting on the couch, who's only vocabulary is the word "whatever". They obviously aren't happy with each other and are ready to call it quits. Then they see an ad on TV for this lawyer (an ad in an ad) which has a woman going "My husband handed me divorce papers and ruined my Christmas. So, after Christmas, I called Mike Gallagher, and I ruined his New Years". Then the couple watching the ad both jump for the phone at the same time and start fighting for it, presumably because they want to be the one to ruin the other person's life and not the other way around. The voice over at the end goes "I'm Mike Gallagher. Call me if you need help."
Anyway I've never seen a commercial that rides completely off of hate. You can't even feel sympathetic for the girl in the ad in the ad because she acts all happy about ruining her husband's life. Most other divorce lawyer commercials show the testimonials with people crying and going "My husband took my money and went and slept with a whore... on my birthday. This lawyer helped me get my life back" or something similar. Not for this guy though, it's pretty much "wahhhh he filed for divorce. Yay I ruined his life cause of it! That'll teach him to try and end a marriage that probably isn't working well in the first place!" Seriously, I feel more sorry for that bitch's husband than her.
Anyway the next part of the commercial where the two unhappy parties in question fight to be the first to make the phone call to presumably ruin the other's life is even worse. I mean, getting a divorce is probably the right decision for those 2 people in the commercial if they are that upset with each other that they have to fight to see who gets to file for divorce in he first place, but the way that Gallagher comes off in his following statement, "Call me if you need help". I can see you acting all nice about that if the other person actually does need help because they're a victim of abuse or whatever, but the commercial definitely implies that the only way that you can feel better is by making someone else suffer, and that this jerk of a lawyer should be the one to make the other person suffer.
This commercial really ticks me off because of how much it relies on hate. There's no sympathy involved, and they don't even try to make you feel sorry for anyone they show on the screen. Every other lawyer commercial I've seen expresses an opinion, and while it might be biased and probably fake, they try to make you feel sorry for the person and it tries to make them appear like a victim. Not this one. It's just hate hate hate hate ruin people's lives hate hate and more hate. I don't like lawyer commercials, but this one I hate.
Speaking of hate, I hate King of the Hill. I looked up from my computer and noticed it on during Fox's run of new episodes right now (speaking of which Family Guy is coming up), and their "new episode" is making fun of MySpace. Does anyone even use MySpace anymore? I thought everyone migrated to Facebook like... last year. Get with the times.
And the new Family Guy is coming up so I'm going to wrap up this blog entry and get it posted. If you read the whole thing I feel sorry for you.