Truth in Advertising laws would require the sign above the door to read "Abandon Hope, all ye that enter."

 

Here's another one of those otherworldly AT&T ads featuring one a glowing, spotlessly clean store, exactly one customer, and AT&T employees who look like they HAVEN'T been on their feet for eight hours dealing with 200 angry, frustrated, sweating people who have been waiting for their name to show up on a screen to let them know that they haven't been lost in the system and will, eventually, get a chance to be told that no, they can't get the problem they have with their phone fixed unless they Upgrade to a more expensive plan. 

As usual, the customer is Already With AT&T but No Problem, she's eligible for whatever BS offer AT&T is offering this week in a desperate attempt to keep up with the competition, which figured out quite some time ago that Lily is nice to look at but no reason to maintain "loyalty" to a freaking phone service provider when there are a dozen other similarly priced packages out there offering the same thing that don't have to pay an actress whose Fifteen Minutes ran out three years ago.  AT&T isn't in any position to favor new customers over old when all their competitors are lining up to offer to pay their way out of any contract if you agree to jump over.

Because- know what?  AT&T stores don't look like this in real life.  They look like T-Mobile stores and Cricket stores and Sprint stores- they are hot, crowded and staffed by damp, limp, exhausted young people trying to balance school with the need to earn a paycheck who have a limited knowledge of phones but are well-versed in contract limitations and the concept that those paychecks depend on signing up a certain number of people each shift.  Nobody in their right mind would just stroll into one of these stores for no reason and, in fact, anyone with half a brain dreads having to walk into that door, because they know it's going to be a long wait for any help at all and odds are at least even that you'll walk out having accomplished absolutely nothing.  If you're tired enough when you walk in, you might even walk out having signed something you didn't read that's going to cost you much more than you realize. 

Lexus "Modern Family" commercial suggests that at least one car company has NO idea what's going on out there

 

I guess that Lexus thinks "Modern" equals "Ridiculously wealthy."  It's not enough that this family has a tricked-out Lexus with "stealth mode" (seriously, what is the purpose of this "feature," anyway?  Just to not wake up your kids when you get home?  For real?  Because I can tell you that the people who drive past my house have zero interest in "stealth mode."  More like "I need to let everyone in this neighborhood know what crap taste I have in 'music' mode.")  Look at that house.  Come on.  How is this at all relatable to anyone?

And as for that daughter- shut the f--k up, little girl.  Your stupid-rich parents don't have to dash home from parent-teacher conferences if they don't want to.  They are adults- even if they do act like naughty children trying to sneak back into their own house.  Go back to your bedroom in the palace they provide for you.  And thank the genetic lottery for your ridiculous privileged life.  You all make me sick.  Seriously. 

Hey look- it's Jake from State Farm hanging out with one of his vaccinated "friends."

 

It's my understanding that the original "Jake" from the "Jake from State Farm" ads which first appeared back in 2011 was an actual State Farm employee who answered a casting call and landed the spot which many viewers found mildly amusing a few times (in television lexicon, that means "captured our hearts" and "became a cultural icon," because of course Television.)

And it's also my understanding that when State Farm decided to bring the character back (sort of; he's so different, I kind of wonder why they even went with the name "Jake" and didn't just invent a new character) they decided to go with someone with acting experience, because apparently being a grinning toady stalker who bleats the same lines in every single ad requires acting experience- more acting experience than that original guy could have ever hoped to achieve.  I mean, just one viewing of any of the "new" Jake from State Farm Commercials should convince anyone that the guy playing Jake probably has at least a decade of theater experience, probably even Broadway, am I right?

And State Farm is so determined that the new Jake become as iconic as the old one (how hard could that be?) that a recent State Farm-sponsored "story" about the new guy playing Jake (Kevin something.  I don't care) "assures" us that he's "here to stay," like we're supposed to be concerned, or something.  

But my question is, what is it about this role that made State Farm believe it needed to be filled with a "professional actor" in the first place?  Jake has one look- a squinty eyed, bemused level of smarm delivered with a grin that makes any sane person want to punch him square in the face.  He has the emotional range of Michael B Jordan or his female equivalent, Alicia Vikander.  He has at most three lines.  The same three lines.  In every ad.  This requires talent?  

Oh, but this guy is in much better shape than the original Jake, who didn't hang around with celebrities like a starstruck lickspittle but just sat in his cubicle doing his job.  I'm guessing that when it comes to actual employees, State Farm would prefer that they act like the first Jake and doesn't really care if they have good muscle tone because- well, they're just supposed to be answering calls, not f--king off with Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers (I bet he wishes he had worn a mask) or anyone else on the company's time. 

Chase Business Complete Banking, Zach and Zoe, and the American Dream of Money for Nothing

 

Zach and Zoe are typical of millions of Americans who dream of someday not getting up and going to an honest job to do an honest day's work but instead grift their way to success by finding a niche market to sell a non-product to a gullible public which has money because it gets up every day and goes to an honest job, decided one day after visiting a farmer's market that hey, why can't they sell something to stupid rich white people?

Zach and Zoe then decided that they needed an attractive "origin story" that didn't involve anything I posted in the first paragraph because that just sounds awful.  "I wasn't satisfied with what was available out there" has been done to death, and besides, it's not like thousands of people out there aren't already selling honey, so they went with "this all started when we discovered the benefits of local honey."* Huh.  That's interesting, for two reasons:  First, if Zach and Zoe "discovered the benefits of local honey," that means that someone local was already selling local honey.  So what they "decided" to do was try to steal someone else's hustle.  Much easier than being original, I guess.  But second, don't hold your breath waiting to hear what those "benefits" are, because you're not going to.  Probably because the Benefits of Local Honey boils down to "suburban idiots think that local honey has benefits, which means they'll buy it."  The actual Benefit lies in the gullibility of people with money.

That doesn't sound good, so let's just focus on how easy it is to scam the public into buying your bee poo packaged in cutesy-quaint glass jars by partnering with Chase Business Complete Banking- specifically, how important it is to complete the transaction quickly, before that public has a chance to realize that it's paying for overpriced bee excrement because it has undefined Benefits which have never been defined and are certainly not going to be by these smiling entrepreneurs who just want to call themselves business people Never You Damn Mind that they have Nothing to Sell.** 

And to top off this stupid celebration of Capitalism, we get a scene where Zach and Zoe are feeding honey to their children because Of Course They Are.  

*and can we be honest for a second, please?  Zach and Zoe will drop that "local honey" BS the moment they have the opportunity to take this grift national.   How are they going to go about selling their crap as "local honey" when Nestle offers to add it as a subdivision and market it everywhere?  Think Zach and Zoe will give a flying damn when they are rolling in cold hard cash?  Me neither. 

**I've lived in a Dark Blue Suburb for enough years to know that there's NOTHING that upper-class white people appreciate more than the opportunity to purchase ANYTHING being sold by a smiling black family at a farmer's market, where everyone they know can see them doing it.  Because nothing brings a suburban white person closer to nirvana than patronizing a black-owned business, especially when that black-owned business is being run by a black family that looks like they just stepped out of the background shots of a Hallmark Christmas movie.  All these guys have to do is offer "Hate Has No Home Here" yard signs free with every purchase over $20 and they'll totally clean up, every time. 

T-Mobile's stupid "Switch Proposal" ad isn't even Original Garbage.

 

You know, this guy may as well just propose marriage right now.  First, he'll never be more excited about anything than switching to T-Mobile, so why not just ride that enthusiasm right into another commitments?  Second, it's pretty obvious that this woman- though surprised at the notion of being proposed to, I mean, just go back and look at her posture when she thinks he's about to pull out a ring- will respond with a "yes."  She's so obviously desperate- she's with this breathlessly enthusiastic-over-a-freaking-phone dweeb, after all- she'd probably accept a proposal from the waiter if he said anything that sounded anything close to one.  I'm guessing this is at least the fourth time she thought this guy was about to propose, and the first time was on their first date. 

By the way, haven't I seen this almost exact same commercial before, either for T-Mobile or another mobile service?  I'm sure I have- the only difference was that the guy was giving a smartphone to his date and begging her to sign up with him because the phone was free with a new contract, or something.  That was gross.  This is at least as bad.  

Slope County, North Dakota: This month's Capital of Dumb

 

Slope County is the smallest county in the state of North Dakota by population, with some 767 residents according to the 2010 census.  It's predominately (98%) white, with most residents claiming German as their primary ethnicity.  It's not especially poor, with a median income of $43,000 in an area where $43,000 is a decent annual salary.  The county hasn't voted for a Democrat for President since 1964 and gave 89% of it's vote to Donald Trump in 2020.

Only 10 percent of the residents of Slope County North Dakota is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.  That's currently the worst rate in the entire country.  Only 12 percent of adults are vaccinated, and less than one in four SENIORS are vaccinated.  This is a place with no hills, no trees, no large bodies of water and, apparently, no brains.  It does, however, have a lot of "peace and quiet" according to the YouTube commenters, which is pretty damning praise for a county full of knuckle-dragging loons who refuse to vaccinate against a highly contagious, very deadly disease.   I suspect that American flags and MAGA caps outnumber libraries by a wide margin in Slope County North Dakota.  I'm guessing that Joe Biden is referred to the "alleged" president among the six percent of the residents who know what "alleged" means and as the "fake woke" president by pretty much everyone else.  And I'm guessing that a significant majority of them are still convinced that Hillary is coming for their guns, any day now. 

Oh well, at least Slope County North Dakota is 1700 miles from my house and unless there's another call for an insurrection against the US government nobody from there is likely to visit my neighborhood any time soon.  So other than this post, I'll just let the Stupid Citizens of Slope County North Dakota alone and hope they keep enjoying their freedom- right there in Slope County North Dakota and absolutely nowhere else.   The rest of us are trying to have a society, after all. 

George Foreman joins the "I'll do anything for a buck" parade by pitching Select Advisor

 

Anyone who watches daytime television- which means, basically, elderly people joined by a small population of lazy idiots who simply refuse to go back to work as long as they can milk the state or relatives for money- has been buried by these "Medicare Supplement Insurance" ads for years now.  They all feature men (haven't seen any females yet) who were household names in the 1970s - Joe Namath, JJ Walker, Danny Glover, and here's George Foreman- and whose appearance on television probably tweaks a nostalgia bone in the seniors or near-seniors watching the tube.  They all make their pitch with big smiles and earnest voices, urging the viewers to take advantage of all the "great benefits" they may be "missing" because they aren't using all the "Medicare Benefits" that they are entitled to.

What's really happening, of course, is that this sleazy non-insurance is hiding behind equally sleazy semi-celebrities - and the trusted name "Medicare"- to sell a non-product no elderly person actually needs.  Yes, the product is "free"- if you call giving a stranger your phone number, Social Security number, Medicare number and physical mailing address- making you a target for every other scammer who definitely will NOT let you off "FOR FREEEE" if they can get away with it- "free."  This "product" offers absolutely nothing you can't get simply by calling Medicare (it's the number on the back of the card, NOT the number on the TV screen) and asking a few questions.  And Medicare won't sell your number to grifters, go figure.  They also won't charge you for "extras" you are entitled to- which is where Select Advisor gets its money if the elderly person on the other end actually does agree to sign up.  They are the equivalent of an online "service" hiding behind what sure looks like the USPS logo offering to hold your mail for you for the low, low price of $15 per month.  But again, even if you DON'T sign up- they still have your personal information to sell to someone else. 

It wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that Joe Namath and JJ Walker are in need of extra cash and this shameful gig was the best they could do- I mean, neither has been relevant in media for nearly fifty years (man, that's depressing to think about.  Now I'm depressed.)  But George Foreman, after retiring in 1977 having made some $10 million adjusted-for-inflation dollars, returned to the ring ten years later, made another $20 million in purses, rented his name to an electric grill company in exchange for 45% of the grill's profits (he says that he was making up to $8 million PER MONTH at one point,) took in $11 million in compensation for doing infomercials for the grill, and eventually sold out for $137 million.  His current net worth is estimated to be north of $200 million.  In short, HE DOESN'T NEED THIS MONEY.  Which leads me to conclude that HE JUST LIKES BEING ON TV and HE JUST REALLY, REALLY LIKES MONEY.  So much so that he's willing to lend his trusted face and name to Scammer Info Central.

Here's what I really don't get, though:  Why is any company allowed to use the trademarked term "Medicare" to pitch a product that is not in any way legally connected and approved by Medicare?  Oh right, because Capitalism and the fact that the United States has the most lax Truth in Advertising laws in the Western World.  At least we're Number One in something.  Too bad it has to be in something that victimizes thousands of innocent old people every year.