Subtitles

What's the deal with the amount of subtitles going around these days?

Have we become so lazy that we can't be arsed to listen to what's being said?
We have to have it spelled out for us?

Obviously films in a language we don't know need subtitles so we can understand what's being said, and I've got no problem with that.

The problem is things like interviews and such with people who speak English, but with an accent.
Apparently either too many people complained that they couldn't understand what was being said, or a CEO or two couldn't understand and decided that everyone must be as stupid as they were and needed subtitles to know what the hell is going on.

Is it really that hard to listen to what people have to say?

An example that sticks in my mind is the 'white tea' commercial by Snapple.
I'm not a tea drinker so I didn't know what white tea is, and probably a lot of other didn't either.
So they asked the question, and an older man, explained that it was tea made from leaves of young plants, so it's very light colored and flavored. Ok, makes sense.
I don't know exactly where the gentlemen was from, it could have been India, Thailand, or some other tea growing country.
He did have a pretty good accent, but it really wasn't that hard to understand what he was saying.
I love my Snapple juices, but come on people, don't treat your customers like they're morons.

I know it can be tough to understand people sometimes, especially with some of the colloquialisms that don't make sense (Scots seem to have a few of these), but for fooks sake man, make the bloody effort.