Do TV commercials create SCs?

[CancelMyService]

I often wondered if SCs somehow get the idea for their suckiness or at least the nerve to be sucky in public from what they see on TV. Just tonight I saw an ad for some new gut bomb from Taco Bell that featured a mother dragging her 20something son by the ear into the store because she thought he cheated the store out of money since the new item is SO CHEAP IT'S CRAZY~!.

Well that part was funny, but they come across an employee who confirms for mom the price is correct and she proceeds to grab the employee by the ear as well and demand to speak to the manager, since of course the employee must be stupid/lying as well.

I mean, look at all the things that are conveyed in one TV ad:

1. It's acceptable to make a scene in a fast food store.
2. Store employees are either dumb or lying to you.
3. It's OK/funny to assault employees.

I mean, you may say I'm overreacting (and I very well may be), but how many threads have appeared here containing those very same points?

After reading the posts on this board, especially the ones that involve fast food or big box retail stores, it's kind of shocking to watch their TV ads and see typical SC behavior basically being encouraged even if for laughs.

[captainvegetable02]

There's a recent one for American Express where the guy keeps asking a phone rep a bunch of stupid questions about booking flights or something, while he's eating, brushing his teeth, using the bathroom, etc. It makes me all stabby every time I see it.

And why is it that the employees in the commercials always act like they think this obnoxious, innapropriate behavior is cute and funny? It's like the commercials are telling people that it's okay to abuse store employees! Obviously the people who write this stuff (and whoever in corporate approves it) have never actually worked in one of the stores a day in their lives.

[CancelMyService]

Ahhhhhhhh! I forgot about that one.

Basically any commerical that has a customer asking endless stupid questions while phone rep/cashier stands there with a "I've had my brain sucked out thru my nose" smile on his or her face makes me want to hide the sharp objects.

[Will-Mun]

I think you may be SLIGHTLY over reacting as most any and all comercials are exagerated and spoof/comicy. But hey, exceptions to any rule...

Even some of the serious ads. Radio Shack has a loooooooong running slogan "You've got questions, we've got answers..."

Which is of course never gonna be true all the time. God forbid a Sales Associate is stumped on one of the thousand products in the store. (Excuse me for not being an expert in CB radios! I haven't seen anyone who wasn't a trucker use a CB Radio since 95!)

Mimimi....

-Harmonica-

"HAW That there be that False Ad-verteesment!"

Maybe it's just a matter of the employees being offended by comercials. Like, I assume most Phone Reps will be angered by the comercial with the man calling at all hours of the night. Fast Food employees will get mad at those comercials like the Taco Bell one...


I know for a fact I want to strangle someone every time I see that god damn big red couch, even now a year after working for Radio Shack.


But in the end, come on, it's comercials... When someone DOES come in and snatch an employee by the ear, you can start wondering.

[Boozy]

I'm with Will-Mun. Most of those satirical commmercials don't upset me. I personally hate commercials (like Radio Shack's) that promises things that you KNOW the poor sales staff don't have a snowball's chance in hell of fulfilling.
One commercial in my area for a sporting goods store make it seem like you're going to have a personal shopper following you around, answering your questions, holding your hand through the whole process of buying your skis, whatever. My husband and I were at that store on Saturday, so of course it was busy. You couldn't grab someone with a hook. I wonder if they got commercial-inspired complaints.

[HawaiianShirts]

I don't know that the commercials are the cause of the problems, but they certainly don't help. And I'm sure some of them are triggers for stupid people to go be stupid.

Our store ran one ad a couple of months ago wherein the announcer, at one point, said, "Come in now for a special $150 savings on select desktop and notebook computers." That led to a customer complaining to me, "But the TV said if I mentioned the ad, you would let me select a computer and give me $150 off."

But, yes, those commercials are annoying. The customer is always understandable, reasonable, and gets whatever he or she wants. The employee happily fulfills all requests, regardless of the situation. It's the way corporate sees the company, and it's the way they want customers to see the company. Only we know it's wrong. I wonder what commercials made by line-level employees would look like...

[Becks]

I wonder what commercials made by line-level employees would look like...

Some of them wouldn't be allowed on the air.

[georgiab]

It's funny because my sister and I were just talking the other day about how we hated that commercials protray retail workers as lazy...do ya ever notice they seem to make us all seem like we are rude, lazy and ignorant. This I believe solidifies intolerable behavior by SC's because they see these ads and feel justified in their behavior. But hey that's just me but the next time you see these commercials with the employee being protrayed this way just remember many ppl thought that concept up so like I say their is truth to every joke....

[BdwayBabu799]

There are Time Warner Cable commercials in my area that irk me a great deal as well. They show customers on the phone with reps and the customers are being very sucky and rude to the reps, the reps being portrayed as just giving lip service and convoluted answers. The customer just keeps yelling at the reps until they proclaim something like "Well I have bad news for YOU, I am switching to Time Warner Cable, how do you like that?"

I don't know that is encourages customers to be rude, but it certainly reinforces the idea that when you are unhappy being rude will get your point across.

[WHShit]

There's a recent one for American Express where the guy keeps asking a phone rep a bunch of stupid questions about booking flights or something, while he's eating, brushing his teeth, using the bathroom, etc. It makes me all stabby every time I see it.

And why is it that the employees in the commercials always act like they think this obnoxious, innapropriate behavior is cute and funny? It's like the commercials are telling people that it's okay to abuse store employees! Obviously the people who write this stuff (and whoever in corporate approves it) have never actually worked in one of the stores a day in their lives.

I have seen this commercial, and I have thought the exact same thing. It annoys me to no end and it has the whole "employees can be bothered with stupid questions, used and abused for as long as you, the mighty customer, sees fit". I have been saying this for so long. There are so many commercials with the customer either asking the employee sooo many stupid questions in disbeliefe of their offer, or being demanding to an employee til they get what they want. Like the phone company/car/computer ones. The whole time, the employee is very nice and jovial. I have always said that it gives real customers the idea that it is ok to act like this. This is what they expect us to be like. Basicaly, we must hold their hands and cave in to whatever stupid demands they want, the whole time laughing WITH them. It enfuriates me, really!

We have this one commercial here in England for First Defense. It is a medicine that "stops cold and flu germs before they start". The commercial is a mom and a kid (probably about 2 years old) in a supermarket. The kid starts to throw a fit, picking stuff off the shelves and flinging them onto the floor. So, the mom, before the kid throws and even worse fit, flops on the floor and starts doing the same thing, crying, beating her fists on the floor ect......this is meant to be funny, like the mom is "stopping the tantrum before it starts". It would have been funny, if the mom actually picked up all the crap her little snot just threw on the floor. But, does she? NO! The kid stops crying and they walk away, while the stuff lays on the floor for an employee to clean up.

I know it is stupid, but it does give people ideas!

Ugh!

[greensinestro]

How about radio ads, too? My favorite funny one were the Washington Mutual ads where the guy wanted to set up a savings account, and the teller gives him all of these ridiculous fees he had to pay to open it up.

* Let's start with the activation fee.

* Now, it can be maintained, and that means a maintanence fee.

* Oh, no sir, there is no fee to withdraw your money. But I will need to access your account, and there's a small access fee for that.

There were others, like the man at the drive through who wanted to deposit his $50 check, and the teller tells him she'll deposit his four bucks after all the fees are read to him. In these cases, they're funny commercials, but they also make the customer look stupid and helpless to fight intimidating behavior like this.


Years ago, when First Federal was still in Florida, they had a commercial with this nasty woman barking at the teller...."I want fresh, crisp new bills you miserable twit!" and the teller was frantically trying to get rid of this woman. It told me then that it encourages customers to act the way they see it on TV.

[CancelMyService]

Right, thiese commercials may not "create" SCs per se, but they certainly imply that sucky behavior is acceptible if not encouraged. ]

I like how the company I work for has idiots calling people to advertise our phone service.......but they're never calling reps and the point of the ads are always "you'll have better phone service, but you're still and idiot".

[Dreamstalker]

My stepfather used to be on the phone while on the toilet a lot*...I truly felt sorry for the techs/CSRs that had to deal with that. How anyone could think that sort of thing was OK to do, ever... A friend of mine will do that while on the phone with me, and calls me a prude if I have to use the bathroom and say I'll call him back (I'm not a prude, that's just gross!).

* One way in which technology to make things easier--cordless phones--backfired

[simplyanother]

I hate the lowes ones

The ones where...the guy's neighbor asks him every thing he knows about product X, because....well, retail people just love working when they aren't at work.

The ones where they claim the employees all know everything about everything.

And the ones with the "Expert installers"...Where the guys are driving around in the Lowes truck and people yell out random things "Hey Pella Hung Windows" (Or maybe it was double? And Pella something else)...because, obviously, retail folks should remember EVERYONE.

Gah.

[Naaman]

My stepfather used to be on the phone while on the toilet a lot*...I truly felt sorry for the techs/CSRs that had to deal with that. How anyone could think that sort of thing was OK to do, ever...

I've had to do this *once*

It was when we'd got burgled and the insurance company (who were fantastic) called.

I had my GFs phone, my super shiny one had been nicked, because she had a busy day of meetings. Of course the guy phoned whilst I was on the crapper and because of the fiddlyness of the claim (the custom build gaming laptop) it was important that the balls got set in motion ASAP.

Luckily all the noisy stuff had already happened so I just turned into "Tosser on the phone in a cubicle"