Don't Try This!

There's a commercial. It's for some service; ISP or cell phone probably. The fact that I'm talking about their commercial without having remembered anything about who they are speaks volumes about the inneffectiveness of the ad, but that's another issue entirely.

The theme of the ad is 'people do stupid things'. The product connection being 'stupid things like not using service x'. The visual is this guy on a snow covered housetop, skiing. He sails down the pitch of the roof, and flies off about half in and half out of the bed of a pickup truck. No question; stupid thing. Of course he's a stunt man getting well paid for it, or a real idiot captured on video and then rewarded for their stupidity.

Either way, I was put a little on edge by the 'stupid people' theme, but thrown off the edge by the required disclaimer. The guy hits the truck bed and crashes to the ground in a heap, and the ad agency has to protect themselves by flashing the words 'DO NOT ATTEMPT'. And here it looked like such fun I was gonna run right out and buy some skis.