I was being lazy earlier today, not feeling well, and was watching the lineup of judge shows on channel 25. If you’ve ever watched shows like this, you are aware of the types of commercials they run. Shady lawyers telling you to sue people, tons of medical assistant and other career schools, loan sharks, and some outfit called Local Phone Company, who will provide you with home telephone service even if Verizon shuts you off for non-payment.

Anyway, I saw a new one today that made me feel sad. Remember Gary Coleman, the kid from the 80’s sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes”? Well, now he’s doing ads for some outfit called I-800-CASH-CALL…which is basically a legalized loan shark company…one of those “payday loan” companies that I have so much disdain for.

It’s sad that he has had to sink so low. He made millions from “Diff’rent Strokes”, but ended up suing his parents and manager because they stole his trust fund. He ended up with almost nothing, and never had much of a career after “Diff’rent Strokes”. Also, he has some kind of a weird disease that made him stop growing, so he still looks like a kid. I’m serious…the guy is almost 40 years old now, and doesn’t look that much different than he did on the TV show.
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There is also another commercial for title loans, which drives me nuts. It shows these people happily surrendering their car titles to another leaglized loan shark, so they can borrow money for stuff like going on vacation. They let you keep the car, but if you don’t pay up, they can take the car away.

WHY would anyone take such a risk for something like going on vacation? What if they can’t pay it back…then they lose their car and can’t get to work? If you can’t afford to go on vacation, then you shouldn’t be going in the first place. It’s one thing to put it on a credit card, if you can afford to make the payments, but to risk your CAR for a vacation? And at what are no doubt insane interest rates? Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Also, in these commercials, they show the guy walking out of the loan shark store with a wad of cash in his hand, and the bimbo with him is lookiing very impressed that he cold score this cash. And they show him getting into a late model car…who has a late model car with a title? We sure as hell dont! If someone is rich enough to pay cash for a car, then they should be rich enough not to have to go to loan sharks.

I can’t believe people go in for this stuff!