So this car ad comes on during a football game (Childress finally abandoning regimentation of his offense, resulting in the Vikings almost coming back and winning without defensive points), and it is the latest example what I think is a several year (but relatively new) disturbing trend: advertisers assuming that their targets identify with visible and obvious jerks, and approve of them being rewarded. The ad shows three different kinds of asshole driver, and presents the car as ideal for all three (can I mention the car? Ford Focus). Of course the thing can be taken as a demo of the car's many capabilities, humorously dramatized. But as we know by now it's the image that counts, the takeaway mental association, and Ford is happy to show its car driven by jerks and desired by jerks and associated with asshole behavior. The overt celebration of obnoxiousness, apparently as a symbol of success and good fortune and having bought the right stuff or won the big battle, asshole behavior as a privilege instead of a symptom, is IMHO getting much more common of late. Any idea why ?
I think this is a trend of NFL commercials. I rarely watch (mostly due to the hour or so of commercials), but I notice the commercials are often catering to some sort of characteristic that they celebrate, but which is considered obnoxious everywhere else.
I've noticed this trend in advertising also....where they show people doing rude or unethical behavior in order to get their hands on a certain product. (i.e. a teenager wrestling with an old lady for the last candy bar) I can't stand the whole genre of commercials.
I watch little except sports on TV, but I do recall one of the ads that alerted me to the phenomenon - an ad for a casino or lottery, showing the big winner playing dead on a paradise island beach to draw in the rescue helicopters, as a joke - on some non-sports program.
