ABC (ANOTHER BAD COMMERCIAL): It's not quite as shameful as the Madden/Outback travesty, but a TV ad I saw tonight nonetheless still has me shaking my head hours later.
In the ad, actor Gordon Clapp (Det. Medavoy on "NYPD Blue") is shown arriving on set and crossing paths with an attractive young woman. As Clapp arrives all of the cameras, microphones and other electronic devices suddenly begin emitting a pronounced feedback noise, until the actor reaches into his breast pocket, pulls out a small recording device, and proclaims, "I've been bugged!" Then, the attractive woman to whom he'd spoken disappears- she was, it turns out, an undercover reporter for TV Guide, and we're supposed to think "ah, TV Guide, they've got the inside scoop all my favorite shows!"
The spot is in jest, of course, but from it we're supposed to draw four conclusions, all of which are false: 1) that TV Guide is known for their journalistic standards/for breaking stories (in fact, it's known for neither), 2) that TV Guide regularly uses the practice of planting clandestine recording devices on the sets of TV shows and/or the actors themselves (they don't, at least I hope not), 3) that such a practice is journalistically acceptable/ethical (it isn't, of course), and 4) that if TV Guide ever did engage in such a practice, they'd be good at it (judging by the feedback noise and Clapp's quick discovery before the scene even begins filming, they're not).
So essentially, the message conveyed by TV Guide with the ad is: "Subscribe to TV Guide, because not only do we commit illegal, unethical acts of journalistic misconduct, but we fail at them too!"