Sure you can see the punchline coming from a mile away, but this is still a pretty cute commercial featuring a guy admitting that he's put himself way over his head in debt in order to live a lifestyle society "expects" him to live because he's a white guy in Suburban America. He's got the ridiculous house that everyone in commercials but very, very few people in real life have. He's got a huge SUV and is an "upstanding member of society" (guy willing to throw money around in order to look far wealthier than he actually is) because he belongs to the local golf club. And he's got himself a trophy wife who either has the brain of a canary because she's been conned into believing his BS or is as much in denial as her husband is.
The problem is that this isn't a commercial for fiscal responsibility, it's a commercial for Lending Tree. So after thirty seconds of this guy setting up the "I'm in debt up to my eyeballs" punchline, we get the even bigger joke that the "solution" to his problem is....more debt. This after he tells us he can barely pay the finance charges on the debt he's ALREADY accumulated.
This reminds me of those blank checks I still occasionally get in the mail from credit companies encouraging me to use them to pay off my debts and "consolidate" them into "one easy payment" of $217 per month for the rest of my life or so. There's no end to banks, credit card issuers, etc. eager to buy up your debt so they can soak you for interest from now until the universe suffers from heat death. But it's so obviously a dumb shell game that only the most desperate- or stupid- would ever fall for it. I guess this guy qualifies, but seriously, buddy...the LAST thing you need is to buy into the idea that you can just borrow your way out of debt. Do you think that you can wash yourself dry or binge-eat your way to a fitter body, too? Because it's the same mentality.
How about just living within your means? Anyone do that anymore?
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