Advertising

Have you ever purchased an item because it was on sale or purchased one item instead of another because it was on sale?

Have you ever seen an item on a market end cap and purchased it as a spur of the moment decision?

Have your ever ordered the daily special at a restaurant?

If so then you have been affected by advertising.

People who think advertising doesn't affect them amuse me. Those parties are so inured to the existence of advertising that they don't recognize it when they see it. Somehow they believe that advertising only consists of visual ads, not understanding that advertising is significantly broader. Which is, of course, exactly how advertisers want you to think.
 
someone must like them, we have 25 channels free to air and 7, SEVEN!!! are continuous infotainment, like the half hour 'Robotic Rhoomba' on at 3.30 am
 
I hate ads, and generally avoid them as a rule. For instance, I'll mute the sound and check my phone while a Hulu or YouTube or comedy central ad plays.

Why not just use adblock?

Have you ever purchased an item because it was on sale or purchased one item instead of another because it was on sale?

Have you ever seen an item on a market end cap and purchased it as a spur of the moment decision?

Have your ever ordered the daily special at a restaurant?

If so then you have been affected by advertising.

People who think advertising doesn't affect them amuse me. Those parties are so inured to the existence of advertising that they don't recognize it when they see it. Somehow they believe that advertising only consists of visual ads, not understanding that advertising is significantly broader. Which is, of course, exactly how advertisers want you to think.

That's not really a useful discussion though.

That's like asking "have you ever purchased an item at a grocery store where the price was clearly indicated?"

In the context of advertising I avoid, it should be fairly clear I'm referring to paid advertising.

And I don't buy stuff because it's on sale. I research and decide what I want to buy, I look up the lowest historical sale price, I set up an email alert to notify me next time the price reaches close to or below that price. No (paid) advertising involved.
 
I really wonder what it would cost for me to watch a John Stewart segment if it hadn't been subsidized by ads.

Don't watch TV, so your dose of entertainment doesn't depend on ads!
 
See, people say that (me too!). But the annoyance usually last a couple of minutes while the Brand is being hammered in by repetition, shouting and shiny things.

Them you go shopping, and the brand triggers recognition. Not the kind: "a right, that's the brand of that annoying commercial", but "I recognise this brand, so it's a well known brand, so it's better than that other one I've never heard of, or triggers a lesser reaction".

Because we are simple beings and easy to manipulate

Yeah, I get that.
I remember there was one ad spot, which was pretty annoying, and I'd never buy that brand...I have no idea anymore what that was. I'm sure though that the brand is burned in somewhere in my subconsciousness.

Pretty much the only time ads don't work are when they cause public controversy due to racism or other similar things.

...mmmhhh...United Colours of Benetton?
 
Don't watch TV, so your dose of entertainment doesn't depend on ads!

My daily dose of TV is less than 5 minutes. It might be more like 15 mintues every 3 or 4 days. So it's really a non-issue. In the same way that I don't care about how good the call quality is on a bluetooth earpiece - I almost never talk on the phone. I'm using it for listening to podcasts. So voice quality doesn't matter much.

One thing I do miss about TV watching is that I'd at least know what movies were playing. Now I never know, so on those rare occasions* my wife and I have an opportunity to go to the movies we have to spend 45 minutes researching what's worth going to :lol:

*I've been Englishing for 35 years, and here I was:
-occaisions X
-occaissions X
-ocaissions X
-ocassions X
-occassions X
-occasions !!!!!
 
In the context of advertising I avoid, it should be fairly clear I'm referring to paid advertising.

Sales are paid advertising. A merchant doesn't just decide to put an item on sale, generally. They get paid by the manufacturer to do it to offset the sale cost. This incidentally is also why Coke may be on sale at one market one week and Pepsi at another market and then they will switch, because the manufacturer wants its ad dollars to go as far as they can without cannibalizing their sales figures.

Manufacturers also pay to get prime spots in markets. That's why the high volume, high profit, high sugar cereals that kids love are all three feet off the ground, so they are at a kid's eye level. General Mills paid for those specific spaces. If you've ever gone shopping with a child then advertising has certainly affected you.

The concept of unpaid advertising is not really a relevant concept. Word of mouth and recommendations from friends are the best form of advertising. You can bet that business do devote resources, that is spend money, to promote those forms of product advocacy. If a company can figure out how to pay to create effective word of mouth advertising then it damn well will.

All that is advertising and companies spend a lot of money to do it. There are businesses and whole industries built up around making effective marketing and ad strategies that most people wouldn't even recognize as advertising. In today's cynical world, this makes those strategies that much more effective than a traditional ad as you understand it.
 
Sales are paid advertising. A merchant doesn't just decide to put an item on sale, generally. They get paid by the manufacturer to do it to offset the sale cost. This incidentally is also why Coke may be on sale at one market one week and Pepsi at another market and then they will switch, because the manufacturer wants its ad dollars to go as far as they can without cannibalizing their sales figures.

Manufacturers also pay to get prime spots in markets. That's why the high volume, high profit, high sugar cereals that kids love are all three feet off the ground, so they are at a kid's eye level. General Mills paid for those specific spaces. If you've ever gone shopping with a child then advertising has certainly affected you.

The concept of unpaid advertising is not really a relevant concept. Word of mouth and recommendations from friends are the best form of advertising. You can bet that business do devote resources, that is spend money, to promote those forms of product advocacy. If a company can figure out how to pay to create effective word of mouth advertising then it damn well will.

All that is advertising and companies spend a lot of money to do it. There are businesses and whole industries built up around making effective marketing and ad strategies that most people wouldn't even recognize as advertising. In today's cynical world, this makes those strategies that much more effective than a traditional ad as you understand it.

Right, that's all either not relevant to me, or stuff that I just explained I wasn't talking about.

I try to buy everything direct from the manufacturer where non-sale prices are purely to clear out discontinued stock or to discriminate against people who need the product immediately. I also preferentially purchase from manufacturers who never have sales. If you want to pedantically refer to sales as advertising, fine, we should get rid of those too.

Sugar cereal is disgusting and shouldn't be allowed.

Again, your "all this stuff you don't recognize as advertising is actually effective advertising" refers to stuff that I'm not talking about when I refer to "advertising", or isn't actually effective.
 
Then your definition of advertising is too narrow.
 
Advertising is the critical flaw that makes free market economic theory not work.

In theory the free market encourages better goods produced more efficiently so they can be sold at a lower price.

Now, take cars. I sold every make of car there is on the American market. My conclusion...they are all just rubber, tin and glass. There is no 'better' car. There probably could be. But almost all the effort in the automobile industry goes into advertising to create a perceived difference, and since advertising is a huge expense it is a significant contributor to the price of all cars. The goods don't get better, the production doesn't get more efficient...the free market is actually just driving advertising to be more clever.
 
I don't mind ads in a general sense. Yeah, most of them suck. Yeah, some of them are truly annoying (Anyone remember "Head On, apply directly to the forehead!) but I understand that advertising dollars are what keep the content coming. Even on Youtube I tolerate them because I want the Youtubers that I like to make money so they can keep making videos. But what I HATE on Youtube these days is adverts right in the middle of a freaking video. If I'm watching a MadDjinn LP and he gets cut off literally mid-sentence so I can be shown a Budweiser commercial, my rage meter immediately goes into the red. At least let content creators select what times are good for commercials so they can try to avoid having the video cut out right in the middle of saying something, come on.
 
To have a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the nature of advertising.

When you suggest that discussion of advertising should be limited to media adverts you foreclose upon the multitudinous wealth of other means of advertising, means that are less overt but no less effective.
 
It is difficult to be attentive to a discussion that doesn't exist.

Alternatively, I could accept, arguendo, that you are an exceptional person for whom advertising is not relevant.

Bully for you, but that demonstrates that you are, in fact, an exception to the general rule as to the relevance and effectiveness of advertising upon the general public.
 
What I don't get is that sometimes I see a commercial that is so irritating that it makes me avoid a product. I mention this and someone invariably says that's a dumb reason to avoid a product. Why? The whole point of advertising is to influence me. Well it works, it influences me. Sometimes to its detriment.
This is why I've never read a Harry Potter book, nor seen any of the movies.

A few years ago there were a couple of commercials that annoyed me so much that I contacted the companies. One was for McCain's Pizza and the other was for Mio flavored water. The products are still sold, but thank goodness those annoying commercials got pulled.

Oh, and Pepsi Blue? Gone from Red Deer. I called the company and told them it tastes like cough syrup.

So if you really dislike a commercial, just complain about it to the company. You might be surprised at the results.

Does not everyone use a PVR to avoid watching adverts these days? I either watch recorded or behind time, and skip through the adverts, or use picture in picture and flip to another channel while they are on. Now when I watch TV in say a hotel having to sit though the adverts drives me away from the TV.
I have no idea how those things work. When I watch stuff on TV I just cat nap through the ads and take the chance that I might not wake up when the show is back on. This is only a problem if I can't rewatch the show online later.
 
So if you really dislike a commercial, just complain about it to the company. You might be surprised at the results.

Or you might not. I set a spam-bot to send an e-mail every three days to Carl's Jr letting them know I was still boycotting them because their ad campaign was revolting...if I wanted close ups of people chewing I would frequent food porn sites. I got no replies for about two months, then I got a mysterious e-mail from a throw away e-mail account that said "we don't miss you". No way to say for sure it was them, but I don't know who else would have sent anything to that address.
 
Or you might not. I set a spam-bot to send an e-mail every three days to Carl's Jr letting them know I was still boycotting them because their ad campaign was revolting...if I wanted close ups of people chewing I would frequent food porn sites. I got no replies for about two months, then I got a mysterious e-mail from a throw away e-mail account that said "we don't miss you". No way to say for sure it was them, but I don't know who else would have sent anything to that address.
That's not an effective way to complain. Try phoning them and being polite about it. There are courteous ways to let a company know their ads disgust you and make you not only refuse to buy their product, but also persuade others not to buy the product. Shortly after I complained to McCain's and Mio, the offending ads were pulled.
 
That's not an effective way to complain. Try phoning them and being polite about it. There are courteous ways to let a company know their ads disgust you and make you not only refuse to buy their product, but also persuade others not to buy the product. Shortly after I complained to McCain's and Mio, the offending ads were pulled.

I sent them a few courteous e-mails first, even mentioning that I actually preferred their burgers over most others, and got no replies, so I just automated it and let it go. I set it for once every three days. It isn't like I was nasty about it.
 
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