I’ve seen others recently, but the two I saw today are a Capital One commercial and a Progressive commercial.

In the first, the Capital One guy is talking to a couple of people. He is asked what he does for fun, and he does not know what to say. Then, they cut to him getting ready to sleep at the bank.

Another is the Progressive commercial where Flo talks with another woman about vacations. The other woman doesn’t seem to know what a vacation is. Flo begins describing what one is. In the end, she says she doesn’t really know, gives up, and says she’s never been on one either.

I was thinking about them while driving and came to the title thought.

  • Ultraword@lemmy.ml
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    18 hours ago

    They’re pushing for more and more. All the recent talk about increasing the retirement age. The idea that being a stay-at-home mother is somehow oppressive and bad, and the solution is two parents working is actually better.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      The idea that being a stay-at-home mother is somehow oppressive and bad

      Orthodox Conservatives can’t seem to square that circle. You’re supposed to be a hustler, bringing in those bags, living the ultra-shiekh lifestyle with the 2.3 kids and the Mega-McMansion and the expensive cars and clothes and whatever the fuck else. But then you’re also supposed to be this very humble, folk-of-the-earth religious traditionalists with a one-income household and a giant quiver-full of kids and a military career and also I guess you’re supposed to grow your own corn or some shit?

      Everything’s just optics. Nothing is real. When push comes to shove, you aren’t supposed to exist at all. Other people are supposed to stare at an AI facsimile if you and be jealous of how well it is doing at everything.

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    Not just commercials, TV shows, too.

    Last season, The Rookie had an episode where a rookie trainee cop, who was living in his car, got an offer from his best friend in college, a successful NFL quarterback, to be his head of security. He’d live in the guys mansion, and get paid about 4x what he was making as a cop.

    All of his cop friends talked him out of it because " you wouldn’t be living your life, you’d be living his."

    Yeah, what’s wrong with that? Your life sucks, you’re working full time at a dangerous job, and you can’t afford to live anywhere but your car. Why wouldn’t you rather live your friend’s life?

    Of course, he gets talked into staying a cop and living in his car, because that was the more honorable choice, somehow.

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      Dang that young guy could’ve saved a lot of money for the 4-8 years his friend was in the NFL and would’ve been able to go into a different career pretty easily.

      What is the Rookie even? Copaganda?

      • RamenJunkie@midwest.social
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        17 hours ago

        Eh, not really. It way more grounded that moat Copaganda shows like Law and Order. Funny too at times, since its a pseudo comedy series.

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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          It was a fun show at first, but it has definitely been veering into copaganda territory for the last few seasons. I hate watch it now.

    • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      But if he stays in his current career, he’ll eventually be able to afford a second car, maybe. To dry his laundry in for example.

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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        We’ve reached a point in American society where living in your car is not only a viable living option, but a better one than many, since so many people can’t even afford a car.

        Now that Larry Ellison, the world’s 2nd richest Psychopathic Oligarch owns Paramount and CBS, we can expect to see a lot more MAGA propaganda about how poor people get all the breaks, and ruthlessly exploit the hapless wealthy, just so they can waste it on luxuries like food, homes, and health care. It just isn’t fair!

    • krooklochurm@lemmy.ca
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      The rookie is just… so fucking bad.

      I like Nathan Fillion but it’s so. So. Bad. Everything about it is bad. The acting, the story, the characters. It’s just crap.

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    18 hours ago

    Metallica, has a really great early album whose title is very educational on how ond should deal with this type of ijustice

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    The commercials on the in-seat entertainment on Singapore Airlines are insane.

    Three in a row with exactly the same moral: if you don’t make your kids multi-millionaires, you are a failure and you will die forgotten with a worthless legacy. It doesn’t matter if you’ve already got enough money to live comfortably, you need a lot more. Invest for the future by buying this fucking wristwatch.

    The other common theme is that the adult children in each of the adverts all look like the worst fucking slicked-back-hair entitled assholes you’d ever meet.

      • MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip
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        They heard that Millennials and Gen Z like fatalistic humor and decided to try and cash in on it. But, like… it’s not fun when it’s a corporation saying “Ha ha, you’ll never retire.”

        • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          “Ha ha, you will never retire because we know we don’t pay you enough to!” - The majority of corporations in America

          Yeah, that is hilarious.

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    I’m guessing this is an American problem? Cause commercials in Norway is more about what chocolate to bring on a hike, what chocolate brand is made both for enjoyment and to repell trolls, and that you won’t be able to enjoy your weekend without Kim’s chips.

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    it sorta of does, and its also propaganda in a way too, makes you think a certain way to buy something, and get distracted at more important things. thats why commercials for sports, Shows(especial -AGANDA) shows.

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    They also try to promote a positive image of “work-life blend” in order to try and spark people’s enthusiasm for working pretty much 24/7.

    As in, “work-life balance is a bad concept because it makes work look evil. Let’s put work into all aspects of life, make you live and breathe work, then you won’t think about it”

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    Forget commmercials. Most people I know/met lately seem to think anyone who isn’t working 60-80 hour weeks is a ‘loser’.

    working 30-40 hours now is considered ‘lazy’.

    • tlmcleod@lemmy.ml
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      I don’t even wanna do 30 a week. That’s over a full day of time i could use for myself if i didn’t need fucking money so badly. Those 60-80 willingly people are fucking nutso

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      I think it’s fine to work 60-80 hours a week if you’re in a place in your life where you don’t have anyone to go home to and you can actually make more money off it (either as a contractor with an hourly rate, or a business owner). Not for long though, because it gets lonely.

      Most people shouldn’t work more than 40 though. Definitely if you have a family, go home and spend time with them. There’s a saying in my language that translates to “work doesn’t run away from you”, as in, there will always be more work to do, but your toddler won’t always be a toddler.

    • MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip
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      You probably can’t change their mind, but you can remember that their opinion doesn’t define you. And also you have just as much power over them (that which they grant you), which you can use to try to instill in them a sense of living their own life instead of working for the glory of the Corpos.

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      Met a vet doc that disparaged a vet that leaves at 5: “8-5 and then she’s gone. Nobody wants to work any more”

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        Who the fuck ever wanted to work in the first place. Bitch, we have to work.

      • MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip
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        Infuriating. The point of advancing society and dividing labor into specialties is so that we can create more for our world than if each of us tried to a little bit of everything (farming, crafting, medicine, etc.) beyond the small amounts we choose for joy or satisfaction. And then with that, we get to have more free time, because we actually only need so much to make our society work and improve at a reasonable pace.

        The people who think we all need to bust our asses got hoodwinked by the ownership class into producing even more for their overlords.

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    I’ve seen some of those while out and about. In the first place I have a long gap, often months, between seeing commercials (and thanks to Lemmy for being part of what makes that possible). It feels like they are advertising the high that comes from sleep deprivation. That’s not being locked in, it’s killing yourself.

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    The cold medicine commercials are big on going to work while ill. If you can’t sleep because you’re sick as fuck, please don’t come to work and pass it to the rest of us!

    • bigfondue@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      Next time you’re out at a restaurant, keep in mind that American restaurants for the most part do not give their employees sick days at all. Bon appetit

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        Over here in Germany there’s no sick pay when you’re self employed, but there is (by law) when you are an employee.

        I had been self employed from my 20s to 50s and am an employee for 6 years now.

        I was in hospital last week to get my back fixed and am on sick leave for 4-6 weeks now. It’s still fucking amazing to me, that I can heal up now and will still get my payment into my account end of the month.

        Having things like that written into law is amazing.

        • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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          Must be nice…

          coughs up a bloody lung diseased with covid

          'Scuse me while I go work my job assisting the elderly and disabled.

          • froh42@lemmy.world
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            Ah fuck I hate that, when people go to work sick and infect everyone else. (Yes I understand you need to, and it’s not your fault. So I hate your boss.)

            The history is interesting, we got health insurance and paid leave in the 1880s from Bismarck. He was trying to appease workers so they won’t flock to the socialist or social democrat parties which were booming at that time. At the same time Bismarck outlawed left wing parties. (It was a stick and carrot approach).

            In 1969 we had a bipartisan left - right government (“great coalition”) and they put up to 6 weeks of paid sick leave into. law.

      • Mac@mander.xyz
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        I’ll be sure to do that the next time i’m making these decisions.

      • Sc00ter@lemmy.zip
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        My job offers time off. Its 1 bucket of time off. If you want more time off, you have to work more OT to “offset” it

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      If you can’t sleep because you’re sick as fuck, please don’t come to work and pass it to the rest of us!

      Someone should tell my boss

      • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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        Legalize cocaine so I can free base some crack before work and I’ll be ready for anything (like getting fired).

    • CodingCarpenter@lemmy.ml
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      I just saw a new one from the NyQuil company last night that they’re now making pain quill? So now they’ll sell you what I believe is just liquid ibuprofen and liquid cold meds so you can go to work even with that awful headache from being sick

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      I mean, that’s one of the downsides to home ownership. If it’s not yard work, there’s always some sort of maintenance that needs doing.

      You can either put it off until it becomes an emergency, pay someone out the ass to do it, or you can find some way to force yourself to do it.

      I say this as I’m taking a break from climbing in my attic to replace the AC condensate pump line that I’ve been putting off for 3 months, so I don’t have to keep dumping 5 gallon buckets of water out twice a day. The quote to have a pro do it was $750

      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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        one of my family member is like first and last you mentioned for maintenance. puts its off until someone complains or an emergency, or force themselves to do it, but the problem is procastinating made him too lazy to do it in the end, he rather let it fall apart instead, and now its more expensive than he can handle even if he paid now, so now its unlikely he will do anything at this point because hes unwilling to do it, because theres so much he has to do the house, tearing down part of the walls, ceilings, wireing,etc.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        I feel that. Ex-wife and I called it the “Home Depot tax”.

        Crappy power washer took a dump washing the living room area rug. Well fuck. Haven’t figured it out yet, can’t afford a new one.

        Wife: “I’ll scrub it by hand.”

        That’s not the problem! We have to have a power washer to keep the house clean. I am no clean freak, not by a long shot.

        Dated a girl with kidney issues. She couldn’t get out and work at all. The outside of her house was disintegrating for lack of cleaning.

        • bus_factor@lemmy.world
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          Where do you live where you need to power wash your house on the regular? Also, that can’t be good for the paint.

            • village604@adultswim.fan
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              I live in an area with lots of pollen and high humidity and I just rinse the house off every so often. A pressure washer absolutely isn’t a requirement.

          • tinyvoltron@discuss.online
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            I’ve got vinyl siding. A couple areas of my house never get direct sun. It doesn’t take long for mildew to grow. It’s easy to clean just a hassle. I do it a couple times a year.

      • frunch@lemmy.world
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        I love the example you used–i have battled with the condensate drain system in my cramped crawlspace on numerous occasions… I had the misfortune of discovering it stopped working on at least 3 separate occasions, leading to standing water in the crawlspace until i figured out a way to get rid of the water and fix the problem. I’ve luckily come up with a solution each time (first 2 times was a clogged line, most recently it was a bad GFI outlet–curveball!) but i can’t imagine how much I’d be paying other companies to get rid of the water and fix the problem each time. No doubt it’s better than renting in certain respects but just like someone else here said–you can have a $20k problem happen, and you are the person responsible for putting up the $ or figuring it out yourself (which isn’t always possible, or a good idea to attempt)…

      • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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        Wow so it’s like renting but you get to fix things before they become a big issue, and you get something to show for it at the end?

        • village604@adultswim.fan
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          No, it’s nothing like renting because you’re financially responsible for literally everything. Need a new roof? Better be prepared to shell out $20k minimum. Need a new HVAC system? Yeah, it’s not much cheaper.

          You don’t necessarily build as much equity in a home as people seem to think. With the costs of maintenance, insurance, property taxes, etc. it’s entirely possible to lose money with a house.

          Sure, if you’re only looking at the purchase price vs selling price it looks nice, but there’s tons of costs that only serve to keep the selling price from dropping.

          • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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            If a rental turns a profit, the renter ends up paying more for the property than the landlord does.

            • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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              depends how much they are charging, and if certain states allow free-reign of renting, and doesnt have things like rent control. corporate type landlords will do this often though, because they can fight the renters easily with thier lawyers. single household owners have less resources.

          • Monument@lemmy.sdf.org
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            And it’s an act of constant, willful effort by yourself and your community.

            One neighbor is a rental, they are a large immigrant family and are barely getting along. Property owner lives out of country. Another neighbor thought it would be a fun idea to feed neighborhood stray cats. They wound up creating a very healthy breeding family of raccoons out the run-down garage of the rental. For years their offspring have wreaked havoc in our neighborhood. Every fall I’ve had to call a pest control company to trap the tiny raccoons that are small enough to climb downspouts (the big ones aren’t) and destroy the siding and soffits of my neighbors houses. The cat food guy moved away, I figured out how to occlude the raccoons from my downspouts with ample and unsightly flashing, and along with other neighbors, have built or repaired fencing in in our backyards (mostly because of pets and trespassing neighborhood kids, honestly).
            It seems like the raccoon misadventure has finally concluded. I’m now stuck with damaged soffits that squirrels have moved into (on account of a looming walnut tree that lives in a neighbors yard and is so large it overhangs my roof), and a repair estimate that was $5k a year ago, when I had the garage roof redone but wasn’t sure I’d gotten the raccoon problem licked, so I didn’t want to proceed with those repairs. Who knows what it’ll be now. … yay.