Socially inept "literalist" TV advertisements

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There is a characterisation that has appeared in TV advertisements for several products of socially inept characters who takes things very literally. There are so many that I think the advertising industry must have adopted some archetype. Two examples (both are actually characters throughout a series of adverts) are these:

Fergus is asked to lower the prices, and puts the labels on the floor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfobezCsNb4

Liam wanting to (physically) cut everything http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6cRVrRGCRo or, at about 30 seconds, "That's what I call initiative!", "Oh, I though we were calling it... [Bulmers Berry]" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcNJp_vX5rg

I am guessing that the theory behind it is: the viewer can see how dumb the person is, so it makes the viewer feel superior - you've won them with vanity. Second, the viewer can make the right interpretation without the ad spelling it out: we know that "lower prices" mean cheaper products, not price tags on the floor; we know that the product's name is not "innovative", so the ad has us feeling superior about knowing the product's real name, and its claim to have a lower price.

Not sure that this is a direct dig at stereotypes of people with ASDs, although it could be. Just because you tell people to stop being prejudiced about race or gender doesn't mean that they get the wider idea that all sorts of prejudice - including prejudices about ASDs - are bad things. So I see it as basically using vanity ("you are brighter than this guy") to sell a product. But some people - and not just Aspies - may see it as a dig at people on the spectrum, whether or not that was in the advertiser's mind.

Mind you I don't watch TV in general, and certainly not American TV (as I live on the other side of the world), so I don't know the ads, or have anything else to compare them to.

That was my thought, that a socially inept literalist (possibly a stereotype of autism) has become a must-have character in local advertisements. Both adverts are part of a long-running series, and I think that there are other socially inept literalists in other adverts for other brands. This is actually Irish TV and both are locally-branded, so it is possible that the same agency made them. I can't imagine who (film, celebrity etc) the character is based on.

I may well be a socially inept literalist, but at least I'm not dumb enough to buy products based on advertisements.

Lower price always means lower quality, or costs cut somewhere else (service, treatment of workers, etc.). I can actually get something that is worth the money I'm spending, by considering the views of other people like me, who are considerate enough and literate enough to put a review online.

I get considerable satisfaction from telling cold callers that by interrupting me during the day, they have guaranteed that I will never buy from their company.