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...

slipknotpsycho Reviewed by slipknotpsycho on 03-06-2007. commercials: useful or not? 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... Rating: 5

[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.