Wait until this guy see's speeding, weaving cars in automotive advertisements on TV...his head might explode at the recklessness and irresponsibility of it all.
I'm pretty certain that most people who drive cars are licensed, and thus have a conceptual understanding that such driving is dangerous. In contrast, cold water paddling poses risks that can be unintuitive to normal, everyday people. People can easily die of cold in the waters where I live on on a sunny, 80-degree day.
As other commenters have pointed out, those ads never show people not wearing seatbelts or drinking, and they always have the "professional driver on a closed course disclaimer", fwiw. Now...the car ads via movies and video games, that's a whole other issue. Need For Speed is basically a car advertisement that you pay to play.
Show me an auto ad of folks sharing a bottle of wine while driving or not wearing seatbelts or shoes. Those would never happen for the same reasons these irresponsible kayak ads should never happen.
Speeding is as dangerous as drink-driving, and at least if you don't wear a seatbelt you (probably) only harm yourself, not others.
Those advertisements do universally have a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen along the lines of "Professional driver, closed course, do not attempt", at least in the US.
Seems like he's real deep into a very specific topic, let him have it.
I agree that these ads are showing unsafe use. That said, you can only (mostly) hurt yourself with a kayak. A car can hurt other people in many ways. It's the same story with a bike.
While I take your point, mostly is doing a fair bit of work - SAR can be a dangerous job. Get swept out to sea and you might be scooped up by a Coast Guard rescue swimmer. Repelling or jumping out of helicopters might be their day job, but it's not exactly risk-free.