I will make fun of two current commercials that seem to run in the evening on late CTV News and the preceding program.

Cash for Life Lottery.

“This week 32’s been amazing.” “Week 133.” “What will we do next week?”

The charming young couple are obviously at a resort. There is nowhere in the Americas that one can do an all-inclusive for two people for a thousand dollars a week.

OKA Cheese.

Nous … would like to declare …. some OKA …. fromage.

Customs agent (nonsense, there is no customs at the Quebec-Ontario border):

You can buy OKA in Ontario, you don’t have to declare it.

Even worse, if one were at customs, one certainly needs to declare imported goods, even if you can buy them in Ontario. (I once got an enormously cheap bottle of Kahlua in, I think, an airport in Mexico. This is purchasable in Ontario. I still had to declare it.)

Now for the dumb questions.

These commercials are cleverly constructed to make their product (lottery ticket, cheese) attractive: beautiful travelling companions in one case, and the OKA recipe history in the other.

Does this work? Does the presence of arrant nonsense not signal a wake-up call in the viewer?