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Mexico. Mexican police mistake George Sr. for his twin brother Oscar—who is wanted in Mexico on marijuana charges—and arrest him. The police officers recognize George Sr. as the man from the Cornballer infomercial that airs in Mexico in Spanish (dubbed so that George’s angry outburst is changed to “I’m crazy for these cornballs!,” further illustrating the Bluth commitment to deceiving the consumer—Family First!). Each of the police officers has a large scar on his arm from being burned by the Cornballer. George Sr. avoids retribution by bribing them to say that he’s dead. Two episodes later in “Good Grief!” a political cartoon titled “Frito Bandito” in a Mexican newspaper depicts George Sr. sitting on a deep-fat fry utensil being lowered into a Cornballer by a hand that has “MEXICO” written on the thumb. Apparently Mexicans weren’t too impressed with the Bluth Company’s Cornballer. In “Righteous Brothers,” the Cornballer maims again. This time Oscar’s fingerprints are burned off when he grabs the device with both hands. Having no fingerprints then makes it difficult for Oscar to prove to U.S. law enforcement that they’ve got the wrong man in custody after he’s mistaken for George Sr.

Marketing Ethics: The Model Home

“Family First” also impacts the Bluth Company’s marketing ethics. The issue here is the use of deceptive advertising tactics in the marketing of homes designed and built by the Bluth Company. Deceptive advertising is wrong because it is disrespectful and unfair to consumers. To market its homes, the company builds model homes. Potential homebuyers tour model homes, and, if they like a particular model enough, they enter into an agreement with the homebuilder to build that style of house. New homeowners don’t get the house they tour, but instead get a new home of the same model. Given this, homebuilders may not want to give a model home the same level of care and attention they would give an actual home. After all, the new homeowners will be living in a new home, not the model home. However, in a subdivision like the Sudden Valley development depicted in Arrested Development, even the model home will eventually be sold. So the Bluths shouldn’t cut too many corners in building a model home. Moreover, if the quality of a homebuilder’s model homes are poor, one wonders how that builder will sell any homes at all. If the builder can’t even build a decent model home, why should a potential buyer be confident that the builder can build a decent actual home? Consequently, there are very good reasons to build model homes with the same level of care and attention that would be given to actual homes. Unfortunately, these reasons are lost on the Bluth Company.

Bluth homes are first criticized in “Key Decisions” when environmental activist Johnny Bark camps out in a tree on land owned by the Bluth Company to protest the company’s decision to rip out some trees to make room for more homes. Michael hears about the protestor from the local Fox affiliate. As he’s watching television in the model home, a reporter states that Bark is protesting “the expansion of high-cost, low-quality mini-mansions, like this one here.” The reporter then taps on the living room window of the house Michael is in and breaks the window. As the series progresses, the Bluths learn that the model home in which Michael, George Michael, Tobias, Lindsay, and Maeby live is poorly built. In “Let ‘Em Eat Cake” George Michael accidentally knocks off a piece of the balcony railing. “Buddy, you got to take it easy, okay?” says Michael, “I’m showing this as the model again. I don’t want people to think we have shoddy workmanship.” As soon as Michael says this, a piece of wood falls off the television cabinet and bumps a speaker, knocking it off the wall. “That might not have been your fault,” he says to George Michael. Later in the same episode a knob falls off a kitchen cabinet and Tobias breaks the handle on the oven door. “That doesn’t inspire confidence,” says Lindsay.

In “Switch Hitter,” more things go wrong with the house. The same piece of