Commercials That Annoy, Irritate or Outright Enrage

[ennui]

I found it, Inside Edition: http://www.insideedition.com/investigative/21784-how-reliable-are-home-dna-ancestry-tests-investigation-uses-triplets-to-find-out

"I think the answer here is that we've come so far in terms of genetic testing, but you can't just spit in a cup and have every single answer that you are looking for," Dr. Stork said following the test results.

[Brattinella]

Wow!  What a scam!

[Aquarius]

49 minutes ago, Maverick said:

 She checked Other because she's got so many ethnicites she never knew about.  Yeah bitch, because everybody else's comes back 100% one thing and you're just such a special snowflake.  I can't stand any of the jerks in these ancestry commercials.  They're so smug and douchy.  These things are a scam anyway.  I saw some story where they sent in the DNA of identical triplets and got back three different answers.  One of the triplets even showed an ethnicity the other two didn't.  Thye should say 'for entertainment purposes only' like the psychic hotline ads.  

I've mentioned before, I have a friend who found out she was 20% Persian, which came from her mother, who was 10% Persian.  Her father had no Persian ethnicity.

Her full sister showed a different ethnic makeup, as did their two full brothers.

I tried to explain how genetics works (you know, you inherit half your DNA from your mother and half from your father).  And that your full siblings would necessarily be the same ethnic makeup as you, because, again, half your DNA from the same parents.  She said, no, they explained it, that's not the way it works. 

I'm pretty sure that IS the way it works, and we've known it since the days of Mendel.  But she wouldn't hear it.  She just loved the idea of being 20% Persian.

[legaleagle53]

3 hours ago, Aquarius said:

I've mentioned before, I have a friend who found out she was 20% Persian, which came from her mother, who was 10% Persian.  Her father had no Persian ethnicity.

Her full sister showed a different ethnic makeup, as did their two full brothers.

I tried to explain how genetics works (you know, you inherit half your DNA from your mother and half from your father).  And that your full siblings would necessarily be the same ethnic makeup as you, because, again, half your DNA from the same parents.  She said, no, they explained it, that's not the way it works. 

I'm pretty sure that IS the way it works, and we've known it since the days of Mendel.  But she wouldn't hear it.  She just loved the idea of being 20% Persian.

How would anyone be 10% or 20% anything?  Because ancestors tend to come in pairs, she could only be 50% Persian from her mother, or 25% Persian from one of her maternal grandparents, or 12.5% Persian from one of her maternal great-grandparents, and so on.  Ethnicities are only determined in fractions of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, and so on.  There's no such thing as being 1/10 (10%) or 1/5 (20%) Persian.

[MrSmith]

On 4/5/2017 at 8:01 PM, millennium said:

It's not so much the hunting as the guy droning like Tom Cullen from The Stand.   When you see the commercial 2-3 times an hour, it starts to wear on you.

M-O-O-N! That spells smart! (My favorite quote. LOL)

[MrSmith]

On 4/7/2017 at 7:27 PM, Brattinella said:

I would kill for a Round Table pizza.

 

16 hours ago, ennui said:

I would. I like Round Table. I want one, right now.

 

15 hours ago, Brattinella said:

I would, too.  But there are no Round Tables in my state.  I'd like a large mushroom, italian sausage and olive.

I don't know what Round Table is, but I'd kill for a Chicago-style deep dish pizza right now. I haven't had one in 18 months and I won't get one until August, when we go to Milwaukee for WI State Fair. (I live in Minnesota and they think a "deep dish" pizza is one with a thick crust. ::rolleyes::)

[TattleTeeny]

Why is stupid Angie's List Angie acting as if she's cleverly revealing something that most people don't know when she says, "And we can also verify that what goes down doesn't always come back up"? Right, Angie--we already know that because gravity.

[StaceyNotStacie]

The Walmart Easter commercials grate on my nerves, especially the egg hunt. If my kid jumped into a swimming pool in their dress clothes for a freaking plastic egg, I'd be pissed. 

They probably should have thrown a plug in for Tide with that commercial considering all of the grass stain on the clothes of those kids since they're rolling all over the ground. 

[Brattinella]

3 hours ago, MrSmith said:

 

 

I don't know what Round Table is, but I'd kill for a Chicago-style deep dish pizza right now. I haven't had one in 18 months and I won't get one until August, when we go to Milwaukee for WI State Fair. (I live in Minnesota and they think a "deep dish" pizza is one with a thick crust. ::rolleyes::)

I have seen those Chicago deep dish pizzas on various food shows; they look wonderful!  I think Round Table pizza is a California thing, you can google it and look at the images, splendiferous!

[SoSueMe]

16 hours ago, Maverick said:

 She checked Other because she's got so many ethnicites she never knew about.  Yeah bitch, because everybody else's comes back 100% one thing and you're just such a special snowflake.  I can't stand any of the jerks in these ancestry commercials.  They're so smug and douchy.  These things are a scam anyway.  I saw some story where they sent in the DNA of identical triplets and got back three different answers.  One of the triplets even showed an ethnicity the other two didn't.  Thye should say 'for entertainment purposes only' like the psychic hotline ads.  

These are starting to bug me also. I can see where it could be of value from a medical point of view for people who are adopted to see if there is a genetic predisposition to a disease or something (like Tay-Sachs).  But a lot of this just seems like it's catering to very self-involved people.  The one with the woman who discovers she is partly native American says I, me, my, mine probably a dozen times in the 30 second (?) commercial.

Very funny if it is a scam.

[Brattinella]

17 minutes ago, SoSueMe said:

These are starting to bug me also. I can see where it could be of value from a medical point of view for people who are adopted to see if there is a genetic predisposition to a disease or something (like Tay-Sachs).  But a lot of this just seems like it's catering to very self-involved people.  The one with the woman who discovers she is partly native American says I, me, my, mine probably a dozen times in the 30 second (?) commercial.

Very funny if it is a scam.

The woman who finds out she is 26% Native American is NOT saying "Oh, boy!  Give me a check!"  Yeah, right.

[peacheslatour]

1 minute ago, Brattinella said:

The woman who finds out she is 26% Native American is NOT saying "Oh, boy!  Give me a check!"  Yeah, right.

My husband and his sister are both more than 25% Native American. They do not receive checks nor do they have any interest in doing so.

[Neurochick]

On April 1, 2017 at 4:54 PM, atlanticslide said:

We we talked about this Match.com commercial?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQpyZRcTt3s

The woman featured in it comes across like she legit has brain damage. "My sister! met her... husband! on Match." The pause on "husband" makes it sound like she's trying to remember who it was that her sister met. "And they have a baby!" And then she mouths "that's true" as the host guy says that the sister is living happily ever after, she seriously seems like she has some brain cells missing.

It's not the worst commercial of all time, but for some reason the way she speaks just drives me crazy, and it's currently one of the 5 commercials that Hulu is playing at every commercial break so I've seen it about 37 times and it just gets more and more annoying each time. "My sister! met her... husband!"

To be fair, I think the woman has an accent and probably isn't brain damaged, but I can't stand that commercial.  She probably pauses because she's a terrible actress.

[Brattinella]

8 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

My husband and his sister are both more than 25% Native American. They do not receive checks nor do they have any interest in doing so.

I was being sarcastic!  I meant no disrespect, and did not mean to imply that everyone who discovers this is venal.  But SOME people would (maybe) think that certified Native Americans who can prove it and are the correct lineage, are entitled to their share.  That's true, isn't it?

[friendperidot]

living in Oklahoma where many people do get many benefits from being Native American, yeah, people probably do think that, but also living in Oklahoma, I know you have to be on the tribal rolls and about the only way to be on the rolls is to have parents and grandparents and great grandparents and great great grandparents, etc. I have a Native American great-grandmother, but I am not on any tribal rolls nor can I get on any tribal rolls because I don't have a clue what tribe my great-grandmother was from and there is no one left in my family that knows, so that little piece of family history is dying out. My grandparents were born in the first decade of the 20th century, so that great-grandmother would have probably been born in the 1880s, possibly before, I don't know, but in those times, if a person could leave tribal life and could marry into the white world, that was considered a step up the socio-economic ladder, and the Indian connection was hidden and never spoke of. I understand that, but I am curious, I would just like to know. Other parts of my families have been traced back pre Revolution to England, after Revolution in parts of Virginia, Maryland. I just want to know, it's another small part of the puzzle. I don't think a DNA test is going to tell me much about my family that I don't already know, so I doubt I'm going to do one. And DNA doesn't show tribes and that's what I want to know. Maybe someday with enough data gathered from enough people that do know their tribal history, but not now. The shows I've watched that do genealogical research and include DNA tests will show that ancestors come from some part of Africa, west or north, but they are not specific and I think part of that is that so many ancient peoples whether in Africa, Europe, Asia or the Americas were nomadic and tribes mingled and co-mingled, that's not the term I'm looking for, but offspring became less and less "pure" anything over the hundreds of years. 

[Brattinella]

I live here, too, friendperidot.  I understand completely what you said.  It is only because I live here that I know about this.

[SyracuseMug]

13 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

How would anyone be 10% or 20% anything?  Because ancestors tend to come in pairs, she could only be 50% Persian from her mother, or 25% Persian from one of her maternal grandparents, or 12.5% Persian from one of her maternal great-grandparents, and so on.  Ethnicities are only determined in fractions of 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, and so on.  There's no such thing as being 1/10 (10%) or 1/5 (20%) Persian.

But suppose the woman who was 25% Persian (from one of her grandparents) married a full blooded Persian. Their child would then be 62.5% Persian (50% from the father, plus 12.5% from the mother). And if this child later married a non-Persian, the offspring would be 31.25% Persian, which is close to the 30%, 20%, 10% which you are arguing against.

Unless it doesn’t work this way. :)

[Jamoche]

21 minutes ago, SyracuseMug said:

But suppose the woman who was 25% Persian (from one of her grandparents) married a full blooded Persian. Their child would then be 62.5% Persian (50% from the father, plus 12.5% from the mother). And if this child later married a non-Persian, the offspring would be 31.25% Persian, which is close to the 30%, 20%, 10% which you are arguing against.

Unless it doesn’t work this way. :)

It also depends on what they define as "Persian". It's not like all 46 of the possible genes are unique to Persians, or that the ones that are unique are always paired. Let's simplify it down to one. If it's paired, the kids are guaranteed to get it, but if it's not then they have a 50% chance, which would explain the "sibling registers as half-Persian but I don't". Toss in just one other gene and the math has already gone crazy.

[rcc]

Where I live the Maliseet Native Americans get $5,000 a month. They also have a huge farm, medical center and other businesses. I worked with someone who was living with a Maliseet woman for sixteen years who told us.

[ivygirl]

13 hours ago, Brattinella said:

I have seen those Chicago deep dish pizzas on various food shows; they look wonderful!  I think Round Table pizza is a California thing, you can google it and look at the images, splendiferous!

In my vast, pizza-eating experience, I have come to the conclusion that Round Table is a thing unto itself. I love it (though I admit I have had bad Round Table, and I just don't go to that RT anymore). It's the Last Honest Pizza. ;)

My father, who was from NY, would only eat Round Table while in CA, and my assumption was that it was because it's absolutely nothing like NY pizza and so he couldn't compare it at all. The "NY Style" pizzas in CA were, for the most part, horrendous. As were the bagels. Literally, there's something in the NY water that makes those taste unique. (Just like sourdough in NY is a pale approximation... something in the air makes CA sourdough just so darn good.)

Topic? My latest obnoxious campaign is the cheap-looking one for addiction specialists. Addiction is serious so why make the ads look as cheesy as those ambulance-chaser ads for people with failed mesh implants?

Edited April 10, 2017 by ivygirl

[Maharincess]

Thanks to this thread, I had Round Table for dinner tonight.  Yum.my. 

[OSM Mom]

I can't find a YouTube link, but the commercial for the Toyota Prius that has the fancy "Hey, there's an idiot who isn't watching where they're walking" alarm and a "Hey, you're out of your lane" alarm just pisses me off. The little vapid idiot who is looking at her boyfriends skywriting instead of where she's walking, and walks out in front of a prius. The car alerts the driver to the little twat, and he stops, and she's like "Oh..yeah.. Hi.." *waves in vapid*  Do that in front of me, and you'll get the horn, the finger a yelled at. How about you watch where the fuck you're walking????? 

*Rant over*

Man I feel better now! 

[LoneHaranguer]

20 hours ago, SyracuseMug said:

But suppose the woman who was 25% Persian (from one of her grandparents) married a full blooded Persian. Their child would then be 62.5% Persian (50% from the father, plus 12.5% from the mother). And if this child later married a non-Persian, the offspring would be 31.25% Persian, which is close to the 30%, 20%, 10% which you are arguing against.

Unless it doesn’t work this way. :)

How things are traditionally calculated is different from how they might come out genetically. To radically oversimplify, if the genes passed down from that 25% Persian mom happened to all come from that 25%, that child would be full-blooded Persian; if none, 50%. The offspring would be somewhere between zero and 50%, depending on how much of that 50-100% were passed along. 

[cynicat]

8 hours ago, LoneHaranguer said:

How things are traditionally calculated is different from how they might come out genetically. To radically oversimplify, if the genes passed down from that 25% Persian mom happened to all come from that 25%, that child would be full-blooded Persian; if none, 50%. The offspring would be somewhere between zero and 50%, depending on how much of that 50-100% were passed along. 

Yes, and not to mention they are going back hundreds plus generations.  Genetics is vastly more complex than Mendel's peas.  The DNA tests aren't exactly a scam, but they're not great science either.  It's like molecular biology crossed with a horoscope.

[Sandman87]

I'm somewhat tempted to get my DNA analyzed. Considering how many different nationalities I already know I'm descended from, I might also turn out to be part barrel cactus and part rockhopper penguin.

[millennium]

6 hours ago, Sandman87 said:

I'm somewhat tempted to get my DNA analyzed. Considering how many different nationalities I already know I'm descended from, I might also turn out to be part barrel cactus and part rockhopper penguin.

Call me paranoid, but I have a strong suspicion that at some point DNA results are going to be bought and sold just like any other form of consumer information.   There is no way in hell I would voluntarily give any company access to my genetic info unless it were medically necessary, and even then things would need to be serious.

I also suspect that medical insurance companies and perhaps even employers might like to know more about the genetic profiles of prospective customers/employees, so that certain decisions can be made prior to doing business with them.   Privacy laws are being scrapped right and left as this administration caters to big business.   I worry that it's just a matter of time before genetic information can be sold to a ready and waiting market.

I also think it might be fun to find out what my ancestry is.   But IMHO the risk is too great. 

Now back to our regularly scheduled commercial hate.

For Varidesk:

"Sitting is the new smoking."

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎3‎/‎21‎/‎2017 at 3:14 PM, peacheslatour said:

Watch Bob Ross on PBS. I loved the guy, but my god he was soporific.

Did you mean "stoned"?

On ‎3‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 8:51 PM, mojoween said:

This is probably hypocritical since I tend to spout movie lines like it's my job, but I hate that douchenozzle in the AT&T ad.

Anyone who yells "Hodor" at the elevator is going to watch me hit the door close button and that FACE he makes with "and don't call me Shirley?" makes me want to punch him in the esophagus.  He is not endearing, AT&T.

Aww, I cannot hate him. He reminds me of a friend from DragonCon who died a couple months ago. :-(

On ‎3‎/‎29‎/‎2017 at 1:16 AM, Brattinella said:

Have I mentioned my hatred for the Tide commercial, where the mother says "Mine is the one in white"?  It has nothing to do with that statement, though.  I was in choir for almost every year I was in school, and I was NEVER allowed to act a fool while singing, like this little girl does.  Why hasn't the choir director (or the MOTHER) done something about this?  Is it always ME ME ME lookatMEE?

Good point. I was distracted by the bright spotlight on her making her shirt look whiter.

On ‎4‎/‎9‎/‎2017 at 8:54 AM, TattleTeeny said:

Why is stupid Angie's List Angie acting as if she's cleverly revealing something that most people don't know when she says, "And we can also verify that what goes down doesn't always come back up"? Right, Angie--we already know that because gravity.

I hate those ads with the brats! There's a new one with this precocious little girl begging her parents, thru us, to hire a maid so they can play with her instead of doing housework.

Edited April 11, 2017 by Ubiquitous

[millennium]

On 3/17/2017 at 8:51 PM, mojoween said:

This is probably hypocritical since I tend to spout movie lines like it's my job, but I hate that douchenozzle in the AT&T ad.

Anyone who yells "Hodor" at the elevator is going to watch me hit the door close button and that FACE he makes with "and don't call me Shirley?" makes me want to punch him in the esophagus.  He is not endearing, AT&T.

I despise him most when he does the "fat guy in a little coat" bit.    He's not a fat guy, and the fact that the commercial seeks to derive humor at the expense of fat people seems rather tone-deaf in the times we live in.  But that's not even what really bugs me.  It's the smugness he projects, like he's the funniest asshole on earth and the rest of us were put here just to watch him.

[Silver Raven]

Quote

I despise him most when he does the "fat guy in a little coat" bit.    He's not a fat guy, and the fact that the commercial seeks to derive humor at the expense of fat people seems rather tone-deaf in the times we live in.

He's doing quotes from movies and TV shows.  The line is from the movie "Tommy Boy".

[Brattinella]

1 minute ago, Silver Raven said:

He's doing quotes from movies and TV shows.  The line is from the movie "Tommy Boy".

Well, he still isn't funny.

[millennium]

40 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

He's doing quotes from movies and TV shows.  The line is from the movie "Tommy Boy".

I know that.   Chris Farley was obese, so it's self-deprecating humor.

In the hands of the guy in the commercial, it's a cheap joke at the expense of fat people.  Like the idea of fat people in ill-fitting clothes is funny, so funny that it bears repeating and emulation by a tall, thin guy who never has to worry about being mocked because of his weight.   YMMV.

Edited April 11, 2017 by millennium

[Brattinella]

Please, please, STOP Orajel commercials!  YIKES!

[Ilovecomputers]

On 3/30/2017 at 6:22 PM, chessiegal said:

But I'm wondering if they have a way to collect the broken whole pretzels after making them and then package them as pieces, thus selling what otherwise would be waste. Smart if that's what they are doing.

Years ago my husband and I tried KFC's popcorn chicken--I think it had just been introduced. We got our dinner home , and the "popcorn" looked like the remnants of batter that had fallen off of fried chicken. We had a good laugh about it because we figured someone at KFC had just that idea--to market waste/remnants as crispy "popcorn" chicken.     They don't use the slogan "finger lickin' good" anymore, but when I was a little girl KFC seemed tastier. Maybe it's just me; we didn't eat out much and fast food seemed like a treat. 

[Brattinella]

3 minutes ago, Ilovecomputers said:

Years ago my husband and I tried KFC's popcorn chicken--I think it had just been introduced. We got our dinner home , and the "popcorn" looked like the remnants of batter that had fallen off of fried chicken. We had a good laugh about it because we figured someone at KFC had just that idea--to market waste/remnants as crispy "popcorn" chicken.     They don't use the slogan "finger lickin' good" anymore, but when I was a little girl KFC seemed tastier. Maybe it's just me; we didn't eat out much and fast food seemed like a treat. 

KFC indeed WAS tastier.  They changed the allowed cooking fat to something better for you (sigh) but not tasting better.

[friendperidot]

I am not sure there's any chicken in the popcorn chicken at KFC, but I may have been known to order crumblings instead of fries at Long John Silver, there I only order chicken, I know, I'm weird but I like their chicken planks and I hate their fries.

[MrSmith]

10 hours ago, friendperidot said:

I am not sure there's any chicken in the popcorn chicken at KFC, but I may have been known to order crumblings instead of fries at Long John Silver, there I only order chicken, I know, I'm weird but I like their chicken planks and I hate their fries.

I worked at KFC when I was 18 to 20. There is most certainly chicken in the popcorn chicken. And there is also no way a rat could be mistakenly deep-fried and then served to customers.

Edited April 12, 2017 by MrSmith

[millennium]

Any commercial featuring Adam Devine.  Hate him.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

On 4/11/2017 at 5:22 AM, millennium said:

Now back to our regularly scheduled commercial hate.

For Varidesk:

"Sitting is the new smoking."

I don't even know what that means, but I hate it anyway.

[bad things are bad]

Well kids, I'm sure you'll be gratified to know that those Real People Chevy ads won an award...

http://www.autonews.com/article/20170412/RETAIL03/170419937/gms-unbranded-ad-for-chevy-malibu-wins-new-nielsen-award

[peacheslatour]

31 minutes ago, MrSmith said:

Sorry that I missed the joke. I removed the joke killing, pompous part of my post because of it.

I dunno, I thought the part about the deep fried rat was pretty funny.

[LilWharveyGal]

5 minutes ago, bad things are bad said:

Well kids, I'm sure you'll be gratified to know that those Real People Chevy ads won an award...

http://www.autonews.com/article/20170412/RETAIL03/170419937/gms-unbranded-ad-for-chevy-malibu-wins-new-nielsen-award

Stupidest Ad Series This Side of Liberty Mutual?

[bad things are bad]

Heh. No, unfortunately. My guess is "new ad awarded by Nielsen that a company has to pay for the rights to mention", aka the JD Power business model. 

One of the other "awards" went to Toyota's ridiculous Prius ads that were out about a year ago, with the bank robbers driving a Prius to elude the law. So I question WTH these awards are supposed to celebrate. (the Prius ad series was Liberty Mutual stupid as well, IMO)
 

[Brattinella]

Celebrating big fat commissions?

[millennium]

1 hour ago, Cobalt Stargazer said:

I don't even know what that means, but I hate it anyway.

Varidesk is a desk that can be raised up so that you have to stand at it rather than sit, the spurious claim being that it is healthier to stand while working than sit.    It sounds to me like the invention of a sadistic employer.   Anyway, the commercial attempts to scare the viewer by suggesting that "Some people say sitting is the new smoking."   As if you are going to get cancer or some other terminal disease if you're not working in a standing position.    The attempt to turn something as basic as sitting into a health risk just to sell a contraption that is bound to join all the other home exercise equipment at the nation's yard sales, irks me.   Not to mention the use of the Trumpian "some people say" approach.

[cynicat]

1 hour ago, millennium said:

Varidesk is a desk that can be raised up so that you have to stand at it rather than sit, the spurious claim being that it is healthier to stand while working than sit.    It sounds to me like the invention of a sadistic employer.   Anyway, the commercial attempts to scare the viewer by suggesting that "Some people say sitting is the new smoking."   As if you are going to get cancer or some other terminal disease if you're not working in a standing position.    The attempt to turn something as basic as sitting into a health risk just to sell a contraption that is bound to join all the other home exercise equipment at the nation's yard sales, irks me.   Not to mention the use of the Trumpian "some people say" approach.

*small voice* I love my Varidesk and have had lots more energy now that I stand at work rather than sit.  That being said, it is hyperbolic to compare sitting at a desk to smoking.

[Jamoche]

12 hours ago, friendperidot said:

I am not sure there's any chicken in the popcorn chicken at KFC, but I may have been known to order crumblings instead of fries at Long John Silver, there I only order chicken, I know, I'm weird but I like their chicken planks and I hate their fries.

I love their chicken. Normally I hate white meat, but the same process that makes their fish too greasy apparently is just what white meat needs :)

[millennium]

50 minutes ago, cynicat said:

*small voice* I love my Varidesk and have had lots more energy now that I stand at work rather than sit.  That being said, it is hyperbolic to compare sitting at a desk to smoking.

They should have you writing their commercials, because you called out the primary benefit in your opening sentence. Plus it's a positive, proactive statement, one more likely to intrigue a prospective buyer rather than stirring fears of things we don't like to think about.   

[ennui]

3 hours ago, millennium said:

one more likely to intrigue a prospective buyer rather than stirring fears of things we don't like to think about.  

Fear sells. If the Sunsetter folks could find the "fear" angle, they'd sell more retractable awnings. Forget using your back yard more often, buy an awning or you'll die.

[Notwisconsin]

On 4/9/2017 at 2:49 PM, Brattinella said:

On 4/9/2017 at 2:39 PM, peacheslatour said:

My husband and his sister are both more than 25% Native American. They do not receive checks nor do they have any interest in doing so.

Sure they do! EVERYONE is interested in receiving checks!!!!!!!!~

[millennium]

58 minutes ago, ennui said:

Fear sells. If the Sunsetter folks could find the "fear" angle, they'd sell more retractable awnings. Forget using your back yard more often, buy an awning or you'll die.

It's a cheap ploy and frequently doesn't work as well as clearly-stated positive benefits (I'm speaking from past experience as an ad agency copywriter).  

The Sunsetter folks could easily follow up on the fear angle -- UV rays and skin cancer, for example.   But they're appealing to a demographic that can casually lay out thousands of dollars on a home improvement.   That market is generally more concerned with leisure time, family, quality of life and creature comforts than dire warnings.