TV, or whatever media, Commercials That Promote Mean

Setting aside the awkward thread title...

I've been noticing TV commercials that use
bad human behavior
to promote their products.

This trend might have been around a while, or might be fairly recent.

While I seriously dislike mentioning the two glaring examples, it's necessary. Mattresses Firm shows a grown woman "fan" heckling five year old basketball players, & a guy sticking his fingers in the dip at a party, & possibly others. Sling news service shows homeowners throwing newspapers at the delivery guy (at least he's a grownup) to make him crash his bike.

Is celebrating assholery in commercials a new trend? A lasting one?

I don't buy the "It's meant to be humorous" bullshit. We all know humor can be used to falsely justify cruelty.

 

There is an amazing essay from the early 70's that Harlan Ellison did, 'The Day of the Yahoo' in his Glass Teat column.
He uses the example of the Winston cigarette slogan "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should".
Every commercial is about some poor smuck, always portrayed as a nerd or intellectual, saying it should as as and not like.
They are then attacked by yokels and slammed around until accepting the slogan as it is.
Worst possible behavior by people summed up perfectly.

 

With my limited exposure to the large number of sitcoms currently available, I'd say yes.

I usually avoid watching them because so many are dumbed down to appeal to igloo room temperature IQs.

Edit: This might not be new. Ralph Crampton in The Honeymooners is an opiniated bully.

 

I know people who think Idiocracy is one of the funniest movies ever made (I don't). One glaring Explain This!: If everybody was that stupid, who was behind all of the computer technology you see used in the movie?

 

AI? Perhaps developed earlier in the timeline before everyone got that stupid (i.e., intelligence was bred out of the population).

 

Who does the IT, maintenance, upgrades, replacements, etc? Who is in charge of the massive watering systems?

I'm getting a little carried away here, but Idiocracy has enough holes in it to be a sieve. And yes, I know it's clearly made to be a Just Turn Your Brain Off movie.