commercials: useful or not?

[slipknotpsycho]

ok well we all know the purpose of commercials, to sell an idea or product to large population of viewers....

so... think of all the commecials you've seen, the products/ideas you own, and how influental a commercial was to influencing that decision....

i'm just curious how well they actually work...

[Matt the Funk]

They don't make me by products, but they make me laugh at their stupidity a lot.

[affasd]

to me they are fucking worthless all i see them as is the people just talking about how great their shit is when half of it isn't even true and actors who just bullshit you, and to me i would never buy anything just by what a commercial says, but apparently theres a mass of dumb shits out there who believe all the shit they are being fed on tv.

[birdgirl73]

I think they work fairly well or there wouldn't be so many of them.

The one that sticks in my mind currently is for Pedigree brand dog food, and it shows shelter dogs behind fences and has a voice over (sounds like David Duchovny) saying "I know how to sit and I know how to fetch. But what I don't know if how I ended up here . . . " It's one of those ads that tugs at my heartstrings and works just as it's supposed to--to encourage adoption of shelter dogs and make the dog food brand backing the ad look noble.

[420marijuana420]

usually for me if the commercials are cool and I'm choosing between competing brands and I see that brand for the good commercial I'll pick that brand over the other one. For instance when those axe commercials came out with the girls jumping all over the guys (before tag copied them) they were the only ones with those commercials and it obviously appealed to me and lots of other guys, which was their target audience. So when I would go get body spray I would always pick axe and I remember when the commericals first came out in the locker rooms everyone started using axe. I still use axe today and never use Tag because they just ripped of axe. So the commercials influence my opinions of axe postitvely and my opinions of tag negatively. sorry if i typed alot but I smoked a lil and I feel like talking alot.

edit: and also alot of beer commericlas really appeal to underage kids and the beer commercials are the coolest. If anyone remebers the "love songs" for coors those appealed to me as a kid and chose coors as my preferred brand of beer before I ever started drinking (like I do now at parties) or before I was 21, I'm still not 21. So the beer companies got exactly what they hoped for with me.

[yoda]

I think they work fairly well or there wouldn't be so many of them.

The one that sticks in my mind currently is for Pedigree brand dog food, and it shows shelter dogs behind fences and has a voice over (sounds like David Duchovny) saying "I know how to sit and I know how to fetch. But what I don't know if how I ended up here . . . " It's one of those ads that tugs at my heartstrings and works just as it's supposed to--to encourage adoption of shelter dogs and make the dog food brand backing the ad look noble.

advertising does work. birdgirl nailed it, why spend all that money on something ineffective?

[Oneironaut]

Advertising doesn't work on me. At least I'd like to think it doesn't. I hate advertising (and capitalism, lol). In fact I will sometimes boycott products if their advertisements are too annoying, like those stupid movies on AIM that make noise while I'm trying to listen to music.

[slipknotpsycho]

i guess i asked the question wrong.. i know it works obviously lol...

i meant for the general public, how influential it really is....


i know with me, advertising hardly ever works.. most my decisions to buy things comes from reccomendation or experience with the product...

[delusionsofNORMALity]

all a commercial can do is make me not buy a product if i find the ad particularly offensive or bothersome.

[Oneironaut]

Has anybody else noticed that a lot of advertising these days really doesn't have a whole lot to say about the product you're supposed to be buying? "Look at Britney's tits and buy Pepsi!" "Look at this computer-generated lizard thing and buy Geiko car insurance!" "Look at these happy twins and chew Doublemint gum!"

It seems that hardly any commercials make a reasonable argument for why I should buy the product. It's all about sexy girls, catchy tunes, jokes and celebrities, whose sole purpose is to get you to remember the name of the product. Marketers realize that people want to see these things and make commercials out of them so their ads will stand out and capture people's attention, but in the process they put little or no emphasis on telling me why I would be better off owning their product or why their product is superior to the competition.

[Samwhore]

there the only reason I have inside jokes, you bet your sweet aspercreme

[LazySmoking420]

Media controls the mind, and the mind controls the body.

So yes, commecials do influence you, More than you'll ever know.

[LazySmoking420]

There is a reason to why they're stuffing all these thoughts and images down are throats...

The saying you are what you eat...

You are what you see

Media is a POWERFUL stimuli...

[ValkyrieAg]

Well its useful to the company just to get their name out there. If they can get 1 in 50 people watching tv to buy their product once, their work is successful.

As for advertising, I can see through it very very easy and I can spot the psycological ploys that they play. I think I am the only person in america to count words during a commercial whether it be 'pepsi' or 'easy' or 'fun'. If you pay attention, you will see how much commercials repeat a word 6-7 times in the span of 25 seconds.

[xblackdogx]

some deep wisdom in this thread...
and one,
they don't describe the products because half the time they are bad for you... think about
the meat industry - the horrific conditions the major corps put animals through which are horrible for our health (perdue), maybe even deadly
aspartame- FDA first said no, but Rumsfeld was CEO of this corp, and got his connects from the Reagan Admin to make it legal (it's the shit in Equal)
flouride in toothpaste (flouride is quite deadly),
chlorine in our water (it dilutes all the oxygen in H20 --[i know public water supply is advertised])

[pwn3dy0]

Everyone who watches advertising is persuaded by it, but no one thinks they are. Consumers believe they are rational decision makers when, in fact, they act on emotional associations embedded in their minds by clever advertising. That's because television advertising is designed to bypass the rational mind and install positive associations with brands, companies and products that later translate into measurable, consistent behavior modification in consumers. This system of influence works very well. If television advertising didn't work, advertisers would have stopped using it long ago.


As Edward L Bernays said

"We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested largely by men we have never heard of"

[Mrs. Greenjeans]

I am deathly susceptible to food advertising. If McDonald's comes out with something new, I will eat it within a week of viewing the commercial. Most times I don't even realize I've been hooked.
It's only food though. Other products don't move me.

[Lucifuge]

I just record most of the TV I watch nowadays so I can skip through every commercial advertising a bullshit product they're trying to brainwash me into buying.

[xblackdogx]

I am deathly susceptible to food advertising. If McDonald's comes out with something new, I will eat it within a week of viewing the commercial. Most times I don't even realize I've been hooked.
It's only food though. Other products don't move me.

mcdonalds is horrid or your health,
they are luring you into eating something that is killing you faster


i've said this before,
I mute commercials.

[Skrappie]

Even if you don't buy that product, you are aware that it exists. Shopping has become a lot easier since i stopped watching tv, because when i pass a majority of the products no memory of them exists and nothing catches my attention
by brand alone.
I get what I need and then compare brands based on cost usually, sometimes on nifty packaging most often when i'm high.

[stinkyattic]

all a commercial can do is make me not buy a product if i find the ad particularly offensive or bothersome.
Good point.
I don't have TV atm, but commercials to me are useless beyond noting the EXISTENCE of a product, lol... I'm not much of one to be taken in by advertising.
However there are some brands I REFUSE to buy because of offensive commercials... Guess Jeans comes to mind... it was an ad campaign back in the early 90's that I found unusually offensive to women, even by fashion standards, never bought a single item of theirs since.

[Oneironaut]

I will never buy a Sony PSP after seeing this disgusting ad of theirs:

[MagicalHerb]

They don't make me by products, but they make me laugh at their stupidity a lot.

bro i totally agree commercials are so stupid, i can feel the pang of shame as i watch some of them. they treat people like they are absolutely retarted.
what scares me though is how there are so many people who watch them and think nothing of it.

i had to say rarely though, who hasnt ever fallen victim to the countless misleading food commerciels during the munchies at least a few times?

edit: we should all stop watching tv. it sucks anyways.

[ValkyrieAg]

the meat industry - the horrific conditions the major corps put animals through which are horrible for our health (perdue), maybe even deadly

Offtopic: Growing up in the meat industry, and having been to more slaughterhouses than most people have malls, I'd have to say you are mistaken on the condition of slaughterhouses. They are about as clean and friendly and contaminant conscious as a slaughterhouse can get. You are talking about something you don't know anything about. Perhaps you don't know it, but you are spreading propaganda; that PETA and pro-vegan dirty mentality. Its untrue and a product of ignorance. I hope you don't go spouting that garbage....it makes you sound like an idiot.
Backontopic.

[xblackdogx]

Offtopic: Growing up in the meat industry, and having been to more slaughterhouses than most people have malls, I'd have to say you are mistaken on the condition of slaughterhouses. They are about as clean and friendly and contaminant conscious as a slaughterhouse can get. You are talking about something you don't know anything about. Perhaps you don't know it, but you are spreading propaganda; that PETA and pro-vegan dirty mentality. Its untrue and a product of ignorance. I hope you don't go spouting that garbage....it makes you sound like an idiot.
Backontopic.

while i will take your word on the cleanliness of slaughterhouses, i wasnt specifically talking about that point of any animals life. I was talking about the way the animals live, they are fed hormones and live in ridiculous conditions that arent sanitary. So no matter how CLEAN the slaughterhouse is when they get their necks slit, it doesnt matter because all the damage done to the animal was done before it got killed.