MADISON AVENUE'S MENCKEN MOMENT.  "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public," if memory serves.  Chicago Tribune columnist Michael Esposito is not impressed with the result.

Call me sentimental, but forced to choose between saving my sweetheart or a beer, I'd pick my sweetheart every time.

That's not necessarily such an obvious choice in the world of TV commercials, where a subspecies of addlebrained humans thrives. They're usually guys (but not always), and the message that seems to be coming from many such commercials is: "Idiots and jerks buy our product. Unless you're too good to act like a buffoon or pick on the defenseless, you stuck-up snob you, you'll buy what we buy to be just like us!"

Perhaps it's just the latest business fad, as one of the columnist's sources suggests, or perhaps it's more pushback against the sociology of the light beer commercial.