This shouldn't annoy me...

I have been subject to two commercials recently, both of which annoy me with the underlying message. 

The first is a radio commercial from a payday loan/check cashing company.  Now, I understand that they want to push their product and services.  And a humorous ad will normally make people remember it.  In the ad, a man takes a job that sucks because he is in need of funds.  His friend is occupied the entire time by telling him that instead of working for that money, he can use his car as collateral for a loan from this company because he owns the car outright.  The ad is written to be funny and I will admit, I do remember it.  I remember it because it annoys me.  Maybe I'm getting old, but I hate it when people are advised to go into debt instead of getting a job and working hard. 

The second ad is a televised ad.  It has a background soundtrack of a discussion between a mother and son concerning him attending college.  While this discussion goes on, the picture shows a man getting ready to go to work in the morning.  When the son speaks of skipping college, the man shifts into drab overalls and the house shifts to a drab 50s era tract home with bars on the windows and doors.  When the mother talks about going to college, the picture turns to a mcmansion.  As the family in introduced, the same changes occur with the wife and children.  I will give them credit on one item, the family never looks unhappy.  As the ad continues, the man exits the tract home to get into a beater Japanese sedan from the late 80s or early 90s.  Then as the mother talks the car transforms into a luxury SUV and the house into the mcmansion.

This ad is working to inspire parents to send their kids to college after high school.  But here is my problem with it.  Not everyone can go to college, not everyone can be president of the company.  Not everyone can be "highly successful" with a mcmansion and a luxury SUV.  The world still needs plumbers, electricians, cashiers and cooks.  I know a goodly number of people who have college degrees that are doing nothing relating to that degree.  A number of them have expressed that the money and time spent was not entirely worth it, although the parties were epic.  The notion that living in that small tract home, driving a older car and going to a blue collar job is failure is pushed by that ad and it annoys me.  If the teenager is aware that they aren't interested in the "college/whitecollarjob/executiveposition" track, maybe spending that tuition money on a trade school with job placement assistance will be the better option and they might be a happier person. 

I'd really like our children to know that college does not mean guaranteed success, and that many people do lead happy, full lives while working in jobs that require them to have their name sewn onto their uniform.  The reality is that those people have been a huge part of building America.