Has anyone else wondered why they have to put the standard “Do not attempt this at home” disclaimer on the new AOL Top Speed commercials? The one that annoys me specifically is the one where they strap poor Mikey into an electric mobility chair and he proceeds to launch into the air using the attached AOL units on the sides. IANAL, and fully realize that we Americans live in a ridiculously litigious society, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how they can honestly worry about someone attempting something that’s of course not at all possible to begin with. I can sort of understand the one with the car and motorcycle, even though they’re only referring to a higher speed internet experience, but the power chair? It must be at the request of the American Chopper guys or something. Am I the only one this annoys? Am I being too frivilous? Please, someone, help me 
Whether someone could actually do it isn’t relevent. Someone might be stupid enough to try a stunt that is loosely based on that commercial, and AOL “could” be held responsible if someone got hurt.
If you were AOL would you really want to take a chance at a multi-million dollar lawsuit that you would probably end up settling out of court? I’m sure AOL has many high priced lawyers who have nothing better to do than to sit around and try to figure out ways to protect AOL from lawsuits.
In addition to the fact that there are a whole lot of not-so-bright TV viewers, I think it makes it funnier – ludicrous “stunts”, but with the standard disclaimer. I’m guessing it’s half joke and half serious.
IIRC, the Ratchet and Clank 2 commercials had similar disclaimers, with similar outrageous stunts - a group of teenage boys would use “weapons” from Ratchet and Clank 2 “in real life” and you’d see things like a magnet gun attract would wind up sucking everything metallic it was pointed at, including a mobile home, or someone would be wearing “anti-gravity” boots and “jump” in the air a few thousand feet. I think the warnings are there to be a parody of all those car commercials you see with the “don’t try this at home. Professional driver on closed course”, even when driving down a mountain road at moderate speed - I guess it would be a “mock-u-mercial”, making sure that a viewer sees the various warnings and images and ideas that they would expect if such a commercial and the situations in that commercial were real.
I was excited to hear that the Teutuls would be in Superbowl commercials, but disappointed when I saw them - first thing I said to my wife was "semi-funny, but Ratchet and Clank did the same thing, but better).
critter42
And you think a six word disclaimer is going to stand up in court? Is there any record of a corporation relying on such a disclaimer as a defense against a personal injury lawsuit?
I think it is just a perfunctory nod toward political correctness to assuage criticism from the “Won’t-someone-think-of-the-cheeeldren!!!” brigade. Won’t protect them legally in the slightest.
I love disclaimers. Remember the Pepsi Points commercial where they showed what you could win … T-shirts … electronic toys … a fighter jet - and when they showed the fighter jet, there was a ‘Note that you won’t actually win a fighter jet’ disclaimer …
That’s because someone tried to claim a jet, and took their case to the courts. Search on this board or google, there are cites everywhere.