Don't try this at home

I've got to ask, what is it with advertisers lately? It seems to me they're going out of their way to encourage bad behavior in pursuit of their products.

The other day I was shocked by a phone company commercial [I think it was for Verizon but I'm not sure] where one woman shoots another in the neck with a poison dart to keep her from getting the last phone on sale. This one is pretty bad, but the ones that take the cake for me are the fast food ads where some idiot jumps out of his car and lets it crash into a line of parked cars so he can get into the restuarant faster. Another one for the same company shows a nitwit rear-ending the couple in line at the drive through and pushing their car out of the way so he can order.

Sure these ads are supposed to be funny, and I imagine in small print they contain the necessary legal disclaimers, but seriously. Do companies want to encourage people to commit crimes in the name of their products? Don't you think there should be BIG LETTERS on the phone ad proclaiming: If you shoot your friend with a poison dart, there's a good chance she will sue your ass off?

Those fast food ads aren't accompanied by a voice-over saying: Before this guy gets his sandwich, the police will show up and drag him away in handcuffs, or That couple with the whiplash has already called their lawyer.

I just don't get it. Do these companies think these ads really make people want to buy their products? Personally, I'm afraid to go to a phone sale. Some psycho may dart me if I reach for the wrong cell phone. And now I'm paranoid about going to the drive through at the fast food place - plus I can't even park and go inside because some wing nut might be sailing his car across the lot as he jumps out and rolls into the place to get ahead of me in line. No thanks. I'm staying home. According to the advertisers it's just too dangerous out there to go shopping.

No wonder we're in a recession.