Are you as appalled as I am?

[Aggie_Ama]

Well I love my diamonds, hate to think what might have gone into mining them but I like them. They sparkle, only flashy jewelry I really wear. Still HATE those ads. I am pretty sure men who cannot afford to buy diamonds (or chose not to) love their spouses just as strongly as those who do buy them. Make me want to get on the soapbox everytime I see one.

Crankin- I think that ad is funny but why does it have to be a woman that is so stupid? My mom has a hopelessly clueless man friend I could see wondering why his new car had 29k on it. The guy is just gullible and a little dim witted.

[Bluetree]

I think "appalled" is a very harsh word. I think the commercial is in poor taste, but I also know that some of the things I buy are considered extremely extravagant (i.e. spending $10k on bikes in the last calendar year). To each his own.

But I do think that particular commercial is bad/silly/misguided strictly from a marketing POV. Commercials are often made more for brandings sake than for selling individual product. In a time of deep recession, a (any) company would not be wise to shove images of extravagance into peoples faces, esp when the overall climate in the country is one of fear for their livelihoods. Many of those struggling may end up with a windfall later in life, and you don't want to leave negative feelings associated with your product. Plus, a Lexus owner is not necessarily the same tax bracket as a Bentley or RR owner – they are in the same middle class that is scared poopless about their economic future.

(Of course, it may just be that Lexus is recycling an ad made in better years and greenlighted it for distribution long before the stock market collapsed.)

It was not the most appropriate ad, but there are worse things to fret about than a TV commercial.

[Eden]

OK, so to this point most of my comments have been more directed at over consumption..... I don't think just having money or even being wealthy is any kind of a sin. It does bother me that are the few people who have so much money that they don't even have clue about all of the stuff that they have and couldn't possibly even use/enjoy it all... (like not having two cars or even 3, but having a garage full of 30....Like not even knowing how many houses you own...) Personally I wouldn't ever want that much...

I am also bothered by exploiting other people for cheap goods, and that goes for everyone, not just the overly wealthy.

In any case back to the car commercials. I've just now seen two of them for the first time. The Acura commercial wasn't particularly offensive. The Lexus commercial was pretty disgusting... Acura just suggested that getting a car for Christmas would be fun. Lexus definitely suggested that you'd be better than your friends if you had one - blech! Sorry, I have a 10 year old Saturn, when I drive at all, and I feel no jealousy what so ever towards drivers of Lexi...