One advertising trend that I am beyond sick of is the "Idiot Dad" archetype. I have seen way too many commercials featuring this live-action Homer Simpson doing all sorts of stupid and ridiculous things. From credit card commercials, to car commercials, to pizza commercials; advertising executives have determined that this kind of character is funny. I just don't see the comedy. Either these executives have a very very bad and sense of humor or they are just getting lazy. It is insulting to the intelligence of the viewer to be expected to buy into this completely unrealistic representation, and even more so to be expected to buy a product based on it.

Madison avenue has progressed from objectifying women to making middle aged men look like bumbling baboons. Not to mention how they characterize teenagers. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this, but I've just seen one too many of these commercials and it has gotten under my skin. Why can't they portray a realistic character in an advertisement? Is it the 30 second format? Is it our lack of attention span? Do they think we are stupid? Or are they just lazy and unoriginal?

There are enough gems out there to show that agencies really can produce quality advertisements, but there is far more crap. If I was given a multi-million dollar ad account I would at least try to do something fresh. I mean, damn, all those zeros would at least make be feel responsible to deliver something that justifies the expense.

But maybe companies aren't expecting excellence. Maybe they are fine spending a million dollars on a rehashed, sub-par, snooze-fest of an ad. And if that's case, some of the blame falls on them.