Advertising

Ziggy Stardust

Absolutely Sane
Joined
Nov 23, 2005
Messages
27,009
Location
High above the ice
4 Statements about advertising:

1. Advertising works
2. Most advertising is inane, banal and manipulative
3. Advertising targets all of us
4. Advertising works

Have a nice day :)
 
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.
 
Adblock has made my life soooooo much better. Advertising is terrible.
 
Huh. Online adverts didn't even occur to me when I read the OP. I was thinking TV and radio.
 
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 something I've wondered too, and I actually asked someone I lived with at univerity who was reading psychology with the intention of going in to advertising whether there was any real study into this type of effect, and he wasn't aware of any.

I can to some extent see the idea of "all publicity is good publicity" in a vacuum - in that if you remember the advert you will associate with the product - but particularly when there's a lot of competition, then giving people a negative impression from an advert can't be a good thing, can it?

Take for example, online betting. Now, it's not something I do. But if I did, I sure as hell wouldn't use bet365 due to them having adverts involving a man with a really annoying accent (I think it might be Ray Winstone but I'm not enough of a fan of the kind of things he's been in to know him) shouting at me. I dunno what site I would use, maybe I'd google it and pick the first one that wasn't bet365 even though that's probably the first name that comes into my head when I think of online betting, purely beacuse I think the company beacuse of those bloody annoying adverts. They've built up the brand recognition in me really well, but I associate the brand with something negative.
 
Companies that put unskippable adverts on Youtube are not getting my custom.
 
This is something I've wondered too, and I actually asked someone I lived with at univerity who was reading psychology with the intention of going in to advertising whether there was any real study into this type of effect, and he wasn't aware of any.

I can to some extent see the idea of "all publicity is good publicity" in a vacuum - in that if you remember the advert you will associate with the product - but particularly when there's a lot of competition, then giving people a negative impression from an advert can't be a good thing, can it?

Take for example, online betting. Now, it's not something I do. But if I did, I sure as hell wouldn't use bet365 due to them having adverts involving a man with a really annoying accent (I think it might be Ray Winstone but I'm not enough of a fan of the kind of things he's been in to know him) shouting at me. I dunno what site I would use, maybe I'd google it and pick the first one that wasn't bet365 even though that's probably the first name that comes into my head when I think of online betting, purely beacuse I think the company beacuse of those bloody annoying adverts. They've built up the brand recognition in me really well, but I associate the brand with something negative.


The trick to that is, advertising works, but it's not always possible to tell in advance which advertising will work. And no advertising works with all of the potential audience. So which advertising will work with a sufficiently large part of the target demographic?
 
Huh. Online adverts didn't even occur to me when I read the OP. I was thinking TV and radio.

I like the occasional TV ad because they clue you where we are as a country. But over all advertising only hurts us.
 
Companies that put unskippable adverts on Youtube are not getting my custom.

To see this old idiom in use warms my heart.

I'd buy something from you just for your using it.
 
But over all advertising only hurts us.

Could you expand on that, please? Personally, I would rather slit my wrists than ditch advertising for the insanely stupid TV license way the Brits do it.
 
Companies that put unskippable adverts on Youtube are not getting my custom.
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
 
Advertising works for the masses, but CFCers, could take it or leave it?
 
Advertising does not work for me, except in very rare cases. It makes me avoid many products because I hate advertising in general.
 
Could you expand on that, please?
I liked Alan Moores's take (even though he seems nuts). The way he put it (or the way I remember him put it), storytellers are the real kind of magicians. Because they "enchant" us. By powers which can not be seen, quantified or fully understood, their "magic" creates a large chunk of our worlds.

I don't think it is a good idea in general to have that power commercialized. Because it makes the "magicians" virtually totally irresponsible out of their own accord. Commercials are the straw that sorta breaks the camels back though.
Personally, I would rather slit my wrists than ditch advertising for the insanely stupid TV license way the Brits do it.
I am not sure what you mean. BBC? Honestly bhsup, America needs nothing more in its TV landscape than decent public broadcasting.
 
I can imagine, it's like saying: this poo is quality poo. Compared to all the other poo's it's really good.
 
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
I'll let you know when this happens. Don't hold your breath. :)

Currently peeing me off for the millionth time: adverts recorded at a far higher sound level than eveything you actually want to watch.
 
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