I hate to say it, but.... you get what you pay for. Sounds to me like your ex-wife got a $500 commercial.

Dylan, Yeah, 500 hundred bucks is not much when it comes to TV advertisement, but I guess my biggest gripe being that there're only one or two outfits in town that do this sort of thing, and all the local commercials seem like so much trash.
They had one on a few weeks back for a local furniture store with Hideous bright flashing letters with the stores name, and the entire soundtrack was a snare drum banging.
I guess it got my attention because I remembered it, but it was certainly an annoying commercial.
Mostly, I felt bad for my ex and kids. It was their "Big Break" into television, and it was horrible. This was in 1997, so it's pretty much water under the bridge, but you'd think iin a town of 25,000, that an advertising outfit, one of two or 3, would have a little more class than to jsut take one shot and run.
Russ

Whether it's $500 or $5000, there's little excuse for doing a decent job.

However, I'd guess it also depends on whether the people making the commercial have at least a little technical skill or artistic judgement.

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions