Any ad is guilty by suspicion IMO.  I watch a fair amount of cable TV (nothing racy), and even though I thought my sales resistance was pretty advanced, fell for those Scottrade ads, which looked pretty convincing.  Problem with discount brokerages like Scottrade is you are pretty much on your own in the Wild West Darwinian thoroughly questionable world of investing.  I lost a bundle, one of my stupidest bets was a Russian mining company called Supatcha Resources; and when I complained to the higher ups at Scottrade they wrote me a form letter and I got a courtesy call from my broker.  I wouldn't be surprised if they are actively betting against the newbies as they have all the insider information on accounts.

Not only the language prof ads, but howabout the solicitation emails for various scams.  And on cable, how about the car commercial where the guy rolls a snowball down the hill and it takes out his co-workers car?  And the Fedex commercial where the guy wants to ship pens?  Did they say a pause for a 60 second commercial or the 62nd commercial?

I just reminded myself to go to Amy's wedding.   In fact, my PC clicked on it for me...