Serious Convenience

As many people have observed over the years, there are a lot of commercials that show an unrealistic portrayal of their customers.  Or at least an unrepresentative example: thin and athletic people eating fast food, charming and coherent people drinking beer, happy couples doing home renovations.  Some people consider this kind of unrealistic advertising to be immoral, because companies are covering up the dangers of their products.  Personally I don't have a problem with it: as long as the products can be used safely, and the potential dangers are well known, I'm okay with leaving it to people to make their own consumption decisions.

Besides, consider the alternative: every ad showing the worst side of its product's effects.  You'd see alcoholics drinking until they pass out, depressed over-eaters endangering their health without satisfaction, couples pushed to the brink of divorce over paint swatches.  TV would be too depressing to watch.

Payday loan services are in the same situation.  Their usual marketing strategy  is to show happy, well-adjusted people looking for loans.  They look relaxed and reasonably well-off.  In other words, exactly the people who wouldn't need a payday loan, nor the people who would be particularly hurt by their sky-high interest rates. 

But now MoneyMart has ditched the ads with happy actors and a computer-generated piggy-bank, and made a series of ads with testimonials from actual people who use their services.  The most common one shows a single mother with two jobs talking about how she uses MoneyMart's services. 

It makes me want to yell financial advice at the screen.  "No! Stop using these places!  You can reorganise your spending so your expenses come out after your pay comes in!  You'll save over 10% of your income!  Same goes for those other guys with the kangaroo in their ads!"  The only really positive thing she says about the service is that it gives her a feeling of control - presumably oblivious to how much that feeling is costing her (and her kids.)  I can't think of any other company with ads that not only don't dance around the downside of their products, but practically rub our noses in it.