The Ford Sportka commercial

It doesn’t matter whether or not people could tell the ad was real, the point is there was far more creative (and, for that matter, actually /funny/) potential that Ford didn’t pursue to appeal to the lowest common denominator…it is not that people can’t discern reality from fantasy, it is what the commercial depicts where the true stupidity resides. For you to invite me to enjoy watching a cat (however fake - doesn’t matter.) struggle frendziedly against the senseless and, from its perspective, incomprehensible source of pain and suffering as it is executed and its life ends, only to have the punchline be its headless, limp body slide off the car is what is offensive to me. It is neither funny nor clever, it is an example of settling on an idea that everybody was too lazy to improve into something that wouldn’t so obviously turn droves of people off and disturb others. Furthermore, it is a thoroughly lousy advertisement for a car, the situation and images are totally unrelated to the quality or function of the car itself. The stupidity in people you speak of is merely reflected off of the stupidity of the ad execs who had a responsibility they did not live up to.