Everywhere you go today, you see advertisements. Billboards along the road, spam in your e-mail or forums and websites, as well as “pop-ups”, telemarketers, radio advertisements, posters, ads in the paper or in magazines, even on the products you buy or look at other people wearing, eating, driving etc. And then of course there is the unholy practice of putting commercials and “infomercials” on television.

As this sucks away my life, and brainwashes the masses, I think to myself…how effective is this on people?

To be frank, I am not a mayonnaise fan as many of you know. I affectionately refer to it as “satan juice” or something of the like. No amount of Hellmann’s posters will convince me, no Britney Spears dancing around with jars of mayo on TV, no blitz at the nearby supermarket, to get me to purchase mayonnaise. (My apologies if I’ve offended any mayo-philes.)

This propagandizing of the masses, this brainwashing by repetition or shady tactics, “catchy” songs, superstars, mascots, slogans, and glorifying of the product, all calls questions to my mind to give you to talk about.
Does this marketing influence you, do you buy what you see on TV or read in the newspaper? Do you get angry with the amount of commercials, or the type of publicizing, you see? What effect does this have on society and materialism, or even the economy?

More food for thought, just speak your mind about the advertising business, tactics, and prevalence in society, and how it affects you. Answer the questions provided if you wish, and continue with whatever you feel about advertisements.

Ads suck!

Originally posted by Napsterbater
Ads suck!

Thank you for such beautiful and profound insight. Now, does anyone else have something to add?

-_- That was supposed to be Loki, and I was going to come back with a brilliant riposte about how my brain got tired from all the critical thinking I've been doing in other threads, and how all he had to add was something stupid...

Rats. The game is up. Oh well. Reply to my posts, and you will get to see my reply to this one.

Me personally? I rarely see many ads. When I do see them, they often fascinate me. I wonder if they really work, beyond merely getting the word out on the streets. I do bemoan all the money that goes into paying these artists to produce works of little artistic merit. Many an artist goes into advertising for economic, rather than personal reasons. I don't think most advertising does a whit of good, and that factors far greater than that go into what makes a product sell.

www.gapingvoid.com

The blog world is making a mockery out of traditional advertising. A bunch of monkeys with typewriters are making corporations accountable in a way that has never been witnessed. No longer can a company use threats of lawsuits to stifle negative speech about them. No longer can firms just throw money at problems and expect them to go away.

At the same time, corporate blogging is helping many companies out, by bringing a fresh facade to the facelessness that characterises many companies. Even Microsoft is starting to overcome its overwhelmingly negative reputation, though they still use paid shills as often as not. One good blog can make or break a company, and its bringing marketing power to the hands of the people.

I am not going to declare advertising dead, because McDonalds style marketing still works. But even McDonalds is starting to change their image now.

All in all though, I believe advertising is losing its foothold in the corporate world.

If you wonder whether advertising works, think about any major brand, and see if that jingle pops into your head. See if you know the slogans. If you do, the ads have worked.

Ads work.
They brainwash 99% percent of the population. Mostly the younger people who are all spoiled.

If you wonder whether advertising works, think about any major brand, and see if that jingle pops into your head. See if you know the slogans. If you do, the ads have worked.

You don't follow many of my conversations, do you? At any rate, knowing the slogans (Incidently, I don't know many of them. Companies seem to be taking the out of their commercials, and I don't even watch the commercials anymore. I would be a poor model for this.) doesn't necessarily translate into buying the product.

They brainwash 99% percent of the population.

Well, considering that, what was it, 80% of the entire world recognizes the Coca-cola logo by age 3, that is a pretty powerful argument. I maintain that brand recognizability doesn't necessarily translate into sales, nor into making the company money.

Originally posted by Imagineer
If you wonder whether advertising works, think about any major brand, and see if that jingle pops into your head. See if you know the slogans. If you do, the ads have worked.

Not if I do not purchase the said product :D

I very much dislike commercials with a screaming guy telling me what a great deal I would get at such and such company.
Seems like many automobile and furniture sales companys use this tactic. I would purposely never buy there.

If it were not for advertisers I would never get to see some t.v. programs that I enjoyed, therefore it is sort of a catch 22 situation.

Some of the effects that I see is in the form of people using a product that they think their favorite sports character uses.

The only advertising that effects me personally, in a positive way, is when I am informed of a good product at a good price or informed of the versatility of options by different brand names.

In politics, many people would not know the candidates names if some form of advertising was not used.

Then there is the medicine advertisers, of which even the prescription medicine producers have joined the ranks.
Now they want you to bring up their name to the doctor for various ailments that have been described in advertising, assuring them of a place in the already over-medicated Americans life.

I would like to see more truth-in-advertising. Like the potatoe chip commercial that end with something like "read the back of the pack and see the 50 chemicals we put in every chip that is possibly screwing up your kids health."
Or, the twinkies commercial that ends with "get your fat-ass off the couch and walk 40 miles to burn the extra calories our product just put in your body."

I personally would respect the man more that came on a t.v. commercial and said," our product is no better than our competition, I just want you to buy mine because I need a new Mercedes."

I believe some advertising is necessary and others a damn waste of money. Like, why does the only electric or phone company in town have to advertise?

I believe some advertising is necessary and others a damn waste of money. Like, why does the only electric or phone company in town have to advertise?

To improve its image after squandering it through poor customer service.

The Packard roadster:

"Ask the man who owns one."


Some ads can be quite powerful. They appeal to folks who want to be perceived as better than others. It takes a strong-minded individual to not fall victim to this brainwashing.
Yet, they are only doing their job, trying to sell something. This does, in its way, help drive our economy.

Before you go to buy something, ask yourself--
"Do I really need this?"
It helps.

Funny how everyone says he's not influenced by advertising, doesn't care about brands, etc, 'including me).

The truth is we all are but it's pretty hard to be aware of it.

IMO advertising, as a vital part of consumers society, is a major pollution in our lives and our societies.

Not only it's a mass manipulation tool used widely to create needs, but more broadly it has now corrupted the political life of many democracies to apoint where leaders act mostly according to communiation plans rather than for the public good.

The truth is we all are but it's pretty hard to be aware of it.

They are brainwashing us without us even noticing...:@@:

We don't like advertising but we would like a world without advertising even less. Without advertising, sporting events would be even more expensive, magazines and newspapers would cost more, television would be strictly pay for view, you would even have to pay to access Drudge.

Yes, advertising is annoying but it keeps the costs of things down.

Frogger I agree and disagree, advertising has to be paid for{by the consumer} By a plain label product, now buy the one with the fancy paint job. You end up with the same product but the name brand is more expensive because of advertisment.

Originally posted by Evakian
As this sucks away my life, and brainwashes the masses, I think to myself…how effective is this on people?

very

Does this marketing influence you, do you buy what you see on TV or read in the newspaper?

I think it influences all of us to some degree, we really don't have a choice. Years ago I realized this problem and what greed it causes. Now I do my best to avoid the loud mouth advertisment, and believe it or not I have cut my costs down alot.

Do you get angry with the amount of commercials, or the type of publicizing, you see?

yes I feel that it dumbs down society.

What effect does this have on society and materialism, or even the economy?

alot, take your example of a star, if she/he is wearing something then everyone feels they must do the same otherwise they won't look or feel good. My daughter asked me to buy her a pair of jeans that looked something like what I would wear in my garage. Then she asked me to buy her a cut off shirt. I told her she was crazy if she thought I would pay for a pair of jeans with holes and only half a shirt.




More food for thought, just speak your mind about the advertising business, tactics, and prevalence in society, and how it affects you. Answer the questions provided if you wish, and continue with whatever you feel about advertisements.

For the most part advertising does cause prices to go up. I realize 2 stores selling the same product usually try to under sell each other but everytime they waste money on printing and comercials the prices go up. Something that could have been sold for a dollar now cost 3. Sure to Joe public this looks like a good deal because all he sees is what the other store advertises.

This brings up another thought, what if advertising were kept on a "need to know"? example I'm going to buy a frig. the only place to see the ad is in the store or on the net. No more stupid paper wasting flyers sent to my house about crap that I care nothing about. Why waste my TV time with a comercial about how nice someones privates are going to smell when they have wings. No more radio comercials about food that I would never eat. If a person wants to buy something then go see the ad on the net or at the store. I would be willing to bet prices would drop???? not to mention we could stop cutting so many trees and filling our land with waste.

I think I mentioned something along these lines once on here about ads and pretty much got a resounding "They don't bother me", so I dropped it.
For me the worst part of advertising is the tasteless commercials about medicines and the timing of the spots. I mean, granted, I don't HAVE to watch TV while I am eating my dinner, sure, but this is the day and age of people that eat their dinner in front of the boob tube and I think knowing that, they should at least try not to put commercials about medicines that quote side affects like "diarrhea, vomiting" and other disgusting things.
So, whenever we sit in front of the TV while eating, we keep the remote close at hand for muting.
:p

Originally posted by mad dog
Frogger I agree and disagree, advertising has to be paid for{by the consumer} By a plain label product, now buy the one with the fancy paint job. You end up with the same product but the name brand is more expensive because of advertisment.

Mad Dog

It really has nothing to do with the price of goods. It is the money that the advertisers pay to the networks and publishers that make television free and newspapers and magazines affordable.

Cable and satellite television have no advertising and you have to pay for them. That is what broadcast television would be like if there were none of those annoying ads.

I don't like ads any more than the next guy but they do serve a consumer purpose.

As far as no fliers, etc., I like getting fliers because they let me know where different things are available and at what price. This saves me going from store to store wasting both time and gas in order to comparison shop. I also get lots of free coupons in the mail. I'll bet my wife and I get over a thousand dollars worth of coupons a year. That pays for quite a bit of annoyance.

Originally posted by Frogger
Mad Dog

It really has nothing to do with the price of goods.

how do you figure? if it costs me a dollar to make something then another dollar to advertise it, how is this not going to affect the price?

It is the money that the advertisers pay to the networks and publishers that make television free and newspapers and magazines affordable.

You pay, advertising does help with TV and NP, but it also raises the overall cost of the product. You need to quit looking at the surface and check what happens underneath.

Cable and satellite television have no advertising and you have to pay for them.

I'm confused I've had both sat and cab both have advertisement. They also both advertise trying to make people switch to their product????????????

I don't like ads any more than the next guy but they do serve a consumer purpose.

correct some advertising is needed but in todays society it is way out of hand.

As far as no fliers, etc., I like getting fliers because they let me know where different things are available and at what price.

I'm going to assume you have a computer and that you do know it is the year 2005{being a smart a** ;)}. If you are shopping for something then why not search for what you want instead of wasteing a crap load of paper on things that you'ld never buy? My wife and I are allways finding the better deal and we never use the flyers that come in the mail{they go straight to the fire starting bin}. We seem to allmost allways do much better then our neighbors that buy the same products.


This saves me going from store to store wasting both time and gas in order to comparison shop.

so the heck with the envro. as long as you don't have to do alittle research? This is wrong, sorry but this is why society is fallng apart at the seams. You have certain stores you go too {I assume} then get online or call them about product sales etc... or ask them for a flyer. Why get flyers from stores you'll never go to or that aren't even in your area?

I also get lots of free coupons in the mail. I'll bet my wife and I get over a thousand dollars worth of coupons a year. That pays for quite a bit of annoyance.

I get coupons all the time also, you can get them over the web, at the store etc... I don't need useless coupons sent when all I have to do is pick the ones I need. Sorry Frogger but I am going to have to seriously disagree with what you are driving at here. You are happy getting waste{at the cost of the enviro} because it is easy. I quess your with most of the population on this one, BUT it does not mean it is correct. I changed my life some years back, I live much cheaper and find the best deals, it just takes alittle time and research. I quess I am born out of date but I don't care for a materialistic world that enjoys wasting just to satisfy lazyness.

PS I am by no means calling you lazy it is a generalization that I see more and more in this country. Advertising fast food joints 10 stores of the same type in a small town etc.... are all the same, a waste, just to make people do less and become less, personally. I understand your point about comparing prices etc... but I will never understand how we {society} can justify wasting our resourses just to make more money for the allready rich.

I try to stay away from advertising as much as I can. I hardly watch TV and I switch to another channel whenever I see ads.
I only listen radios with no or few advertising.
I have a label "no ads please" on my mailbox, it's quite efficient ; and I also asked french mail service to be on the ad free list.
I have anti-spam filters on my e-mail software and use an anti pop up web browser.

I can't escape advertising posters in the streets - they are much more common in France than in the USA.

www.adbusters.org

I hate brainwashing.

I remeber that there was a plan for a little while to install TVs in elevators so that ads could be run while you go up and down. I was planning on carrying a hammer everywhere I went. Luckily it didn't manifest.

Unfortunatly the city buses here have now become huge billborads.

I <3 Reverend Billy. He once was arrested for exorcising a cash register.

http://www.revbilly.com/

In Hawaii the ubiquitous billboards on all the highways are not allowed to exist. Something about 'taking the beauty away from the land'.

I for one don't see the problem. After all, what is a bunch of trees to "24-hour private booths Fully Nude Adult XXX!!! Next Exit" I'd much rather look at that than something I can see on a postcard!

Were lucky in Alaska to not have any billboard ads. I love Anchorages local t.v. ads they are low budget, bad quality & beyond cheesy and always good for a chuckle.