On Tue, 1 Sep 2009 06:08:36 +0100, james
wrote:

There was a dreadful series of super market ads that depicted a senile
customer played by Prunella Scales being looked after by smiling,
patronising sales staff.

I don't know if I agree with that. She wasn't portrayed as being
senile at all - she was extremely confident and domineering. Any
smiling by the sales staff was firmly in the "Oh god, what a
nightmare" vein.

The were confused AA customers who knew a man who did.

Similarly, not confused, just people with the intelligence to realise
when some things were beyond their skillset.

If you want patronising, look at the Orange "phone trainers" adverts.
"You're so thick you can't even use your mobile, so we've hired some
six-year-olds to show you how." ISTR there was a considerable backlash
about that.

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