Back in the day it would always be like "prices starting at 59.99"

Probably because they know you'll just check on Amazon or similar. Back in the day, you had to look for a newspaper ad, get the catalogue, or visit the shop to find out. Now it's enough to just wet whet your appetite and you'll do the rest.

Also, pricing has gotten more complicated this millennium. Companies like charging different prices in different areas to different people to maximise their revenue.

wet your appetite

In this context, the word is "whet".

rational thought is the most effective weapon any person can have [against the companies trying to steal your money out of your pockets with mindwashing ads] so they try to not activate it by not citing numbers.

Pavlov's bell would disagree.

In australia we have prices in ads. Im assuming this is in the us?

In tv commercials? For most things i think price varies a lot by location. Sometimes we see commercials for cars or a six flags season pass that have amounts.

wet your appetite

"Oh yeah, I should eat something."

has dinner

forgets to buy the thing

company goes bankrupt

goes to sleep full and happy 😊

Actually, the most effective weapon is not having money, regardless of how cheap the thing may be. The fuck do you mean a double cheeseburger isn't on the dollar menu anymore? The fuck do you mean they got rid of the dollar menu?! I'll just get a Little Caesars $5 hot and ready pepperoni pizza then. Seriously? What about a $5 footlong...? Oh fuck off...

Source: 🙃

Oh god, it's gained sentience...

I’m sure elsewhere as well.

Depends on the comercials, but most likely it's that most things vary by location. Food and services they are running a national comercial when each individual store has pricing ability. Other products, probably still the pricing changes. IE lots of factors may cause them to raise or lower the price. Comercials only goal is to subtly get into your brain so you are biased towards them when you make the decision later.

I still see "from somenumber" in car commercials from time to time. Maybe it's only for products where you can't easily go order it online, choosing between several outlets trying to undercut each other's prices.

I read that like Stewie from Family Guy

Companies realised that advertising isn't about giving you logical basis for a purchase, it's about seeding ideas in your brain.

They want to make it so when you get hungry, you think of Specific Burger Joint and when you are looking for a phone you think of Specific Manufacturer

Price isn't in the equation, they just want that presence in your headspace to influence whatever decisions you make later down the line. Its part of why I hate ads and have eliminated them from my life everywhere I can. I don't want companies living in my head rent-free.

In commercials? What are those… Oh wait, I think I saw those in the bad old days. Yeah, TV was pretty awful back then. Does anyone still see commercials at home? Feels like TV and commercials are the kind of thing you would find in the museum of technology.

Walked out of a shop the other day because they had no prices anywhere for anything. Fuck those companies.

Hwet

If you want to watch live sports, youre kind of forced to go back to the olden days.

The only presence ads get in my mind is what to avoid.

We like to believe we are good at not letting ads influence us, or that only 'idiots' fall for advertising, but I honestly think we aren't as rigorous or as clever as we imagine.

As much as I wish i could make myself consciously immune to ads I don't believe I actually can because ads are simply insidious like that.

We might completely forget we ever saw a particular advert, yet the recognition of the brand remains somewhere buried, and that's enough to sway a choice.