The lie in those commercials is that their target audience can never afford something like that. So in a sense, you're right, they're showing "you" what you can never have.
But it's work. And if you have 4 kids and 3600 sqft McMansion that aspires to be one of those beautiful, large homes in the commercial with the car with over-sized bow out front, you'll spend most your time doing that. But that's not what people want. They want a perfect, clean home and to be able to spend all their free time on leisure activities, just like the commercial promised them.
"Most people"? Even if that's true (which I don't think it is) you have to admit that there's a significant portion of the population for whom that isn't the tradeoff.
I probably spend 1 or 2 hours a week on Netflix, and I haven't spent a significant amount of time per week on video games in years, so your proposed tradeoff isn't the tradeoff in my life.
> I really don't think the trade-off between Netflix time and house cleanliness is a false perception synthesized by advertisers.
Really? You haven't seen any ads for video games or Netflix? I go to fairly extensive lengths to avoid seeing ads and I have seen both.
It certainly is better than NOT walking, but pretending like walking down the street or cleaning your house is exercise is disingenuous.
It's the same amount of work.