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(Most) Advertising is not Effective

Zaryelle·1/22/2017, 10:18:36 PM·1 votes·501 views

This isn't specific to LoL, but about advertising in general. For me personally, advertising is not really effective in almost any form. There are very few advertisements that actually make me interested in a product at all. I suppose it's partially because the 'benefits' products always say are usually just bullshit or benefits of any type of similar product has, not just theirs. Most of it just exaggerating or even misleading you about their own product so you pay 10-20% more for the exact same product.

The products I actually enjoy are random ones I just found myself that actually work well, and these are often not the products that are advertised. Maybe I'm just unique in that I actually heavily research products/studies before buying much and I almost entirely ignore advertisements. Product reviews are better advertisement than the ones they spend millions on. (except for some of the shady fake or sponsored reviews that act like it's the best product in the world worth $1000s)

The last bit about advertising I'd like to mention that really annoys me. The websites/apps that try to force advertising on you. These are the ones I completely ignore just to oppose the forced advertisements, but honestly how effective are these really? Like the ones on Pandora/Youtube/Article websites where they force you to watch an ad before continuing, I just wait until I can skip and completely ignore the ad. I'm fine with them doing this, I just think it's a very poor way of advertising, and I imagine most people do what I do and just skip it. It's almost subconscious now just to skip an ad and ignore it entirely.

I think it's a bit of confirmation bias that these companies think advertising is actually effective. The products that advertise heavily are usually already in the top 5 products of their type, so of course they're going to be bought more, but I really don't think it's tied that heavily into advertising.

What do you think of advertising, do you think it's effective? How many products have you bought/tried just because of advertising?

3 Comments

Curious Kat1/22/2017, 10:46:39 PM2 votes

I think advertising is 100% a waste of time. 99.99999% of the time, ads have viruses, or bugs, or pop ups that lead to it, even though it gets blocked with anti-virus, it completely makes me not want to click a single ad EVER. EVERRRRR. Hell, half the time i am scared to even click gungho links from streamers! It's not the websites that has the viruses, it's the fuckin ads. I didn't buy a $2000 PC for an AD to fry it. So that nice 25% discount has to completely be overlooked just for the safety of my PC, and i actually like gungho!

Most websites even make you take down adblock just to be able to watch videos, or even sometimes view guides. "We noticed you use adblock, please disable it to help support these guides as ad revenue is the main source of income to keep this site running" that kind of shit. The moment you turn it off, BOOM, an POP UP AD, makes my AVAST! go off and i instantly have to start scanning shit to make sure. Or a big boobied click bait game ad will pop up on the side and slow the site down.

Not once have i ever bought a product advertised on TV, on the side of youtube, on any guide website, never once. Not one single time. Iv'e never gone to a game that was advertised on the side of a webpage, never once.( yes this includes the big boobie click bait xD)

Ad's are literally just an inconvenience that threatens the security of my PC in my opinion. I like you, do my own research on products, i can tell what a fake review of something is, if they were payed to review it etc, fake reviews on bestbuy are hilarious, 1 star product gets 10 "5" star positive reviews? All saying it's a wonderful product? HAHAHAH SURRRRRRE. Nice try.

Now, the only 2 types of advertisements that work, are toys, and food. When i was a kid, id'e see a nerf blaster and freak out. Now that i'm an adult, i see a paintball gun ad and freak out xD , or if i see a triple stacked super bacon burger I FREAK THE HELL OUT! xD

Dolasaur1/23/2017, 5:55:11 AM1 votes

A lot of it's subconscious. I like to imagine myself as immune to advertising, but I know that's just a façade. If I have to buy insurance for something and I search online, I know that I'm going to subconsciously prefer ones I've heard ads about. "I've never heard of this brand before, so it must be uncommonly used, and that must be because it's inferior!"

For how many I've consciously bought? Something like 4-5 video games. I have certain franchises or genres where I actively look for games. And if I'm already on play-asia and see an ad for a new game in a series that I thought was cancelled, I'll totally buy it. That was how I found out about Zero Escape: Time Dilemma, lol.

But beyond that, advertising also creates important effects on real life. I'm not sure how many people here remember it, but the Axe line for men's personal care products started heavily advertising (or perhaps came into existence) while I was in high school. I didn't consume much media, so I hadn't even seen any ads for it. But it still created a great social schism. Some guys liked the sexual image it provided. Other guys liked mocking the guys who did like the product. There wasn't really middle ground. And because the scent was so strong, it was pretty easy to tell who used it. So even if you were someone like me who thought he didn't bow down to advertising, I still "lost". My choice of personal care products may have been "I'll use whatever Mom brings home from the grocery store", but it was still an active personal statement.

(On a tangent, I actually use shampoo from that brand now. It's often on clearance at my grocery store, and it's a nice change of pace from the normally-cheapest flowery smelling brands.)

Going to quote the other responder for fun now...

Not once have i ever bought a product advertised on TV, on the side of youtube, on any guide website, never once.

I used to have that mentality. I curated a mental blacklist of things I didn't want to ever support because they had ads. And then I realized that was silly, because it was basically saying "I will support any company that doesn't support the media I like to consume." I don't go out of my way to support companies that I see ads for now, but I at least give them an equal footing when it comes time to make a decision. (Well, they probably have a slight advantage due to the subconscious aspect, but... you know what I mean.)

I like you, do my own research on products, i can tell what a fake review of something is, if they were payed to review it etc

There are some that are obvious. There are some that are amusingly reused for different products or on different websites, so they get easier to notice the more online reviews you read. Personally, I've found that online reviews from strangers mean very little. If I'm not getting a recommendation from someone I honestly trust, then I just go based on specs and warranty. On the other hand, I will accept recommendations from real life friends and family even if I don't trust their judgment on the product, simply because life is more fun that way. ("Your taste in RAM sucks! One stick burned out in two weeks, and the other burned out a month later! I'm never buying that brand again, you n00b!")