I believe i heard of a case where there was a children's song used as a torture method somewhere in the us, which might be a similar experience...

Found it, it was Baby Shark and in Oklahoma: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/05/oklahoma-county-jail-baby-shark-torture-tactics-lawsuit

Sadly, you're not the norm. Getting the brand into peoples' heads actually works in most cases, which is why they keep doing it.

they just want you to look at it

It's insane to me how little thought people put into things in their daily lives, because you're right. So many people see a thing and they're like "Oh, I see the thing. I'll do the thing. Coke flavored mouthwash on my TV? Yeah, let's do coke flavored mouthwash." Literally just the first unfiltered, uncritical reaction they feel.

I had someone the other day tell me they didn't want to use Firefox because when they did it gave them a bunch of security issues. When I asked what they meant it turned out the security issues in question were the browser asking them if they wanted to let different websites know their location, have access to webcam, etc. "Well I just don't like that it does that"

Because you are the demographic poor enough to be susceptible to the scams they advertise.

Especially when it's for vacation spots, booking sites, or luxury cars. Keep spending that money for no return, guys, because absolutely none of that is happening. (I want to say "not happening anytime soon," but who am I kidding? I'm already in my upper 30s and I can't fathom making that kind of money.)

They aren't worried in the literal you, in one sense.

Advertising is a temporal numbers game. Any one random single individual (or household) at any given time is insignificant. You are a speck of dust in the wind.

On the flip side, advertising is (or can be) a long game. At the moment you may be too young, too poor, too healthy, too whatever for their ads to be relevant. However, if they advertise enough and you see enough of these ads, it can make an impression (even if subliminal). And down the line when you're old enough to need dick pills and making just enough to afford them, you're now aware that dick pills exist and suddenly now that you're in the market for dick pills your reptilian brain will remember that jingle "Like a rock" and how Dicken's dick pills are the key to feeling 18 again. Suddenly you're sucking down Dicken's pills like they're candy.

You might think you cannot afford to buy most things advertised, but the numbers don’t lie. They’ll get you eventually. Even if it’s just $3.

Do you really believe that? $3 isn't going to get me the things I see ads for that I'd actually be tempted by. As to things $3 or below, I'm never shopping at the craft store that hates gay people. I'm never buying from the top fast food places either. These are things I already made decisions on for moral reasons and I've never swayed on in all my years, so why on Earth would an ad make a difference?

I don't think advertisers (or those that think any old ad is bound to be effective) consider that there are some of us who make decisions based on our own criteria. I recognize that I'm not like most people, but to say that such ads are still going to "get [me] eventually" is nonsense.

Not having money never really stopped people from spending it anyhow.

Maybe for some, but that's again not something that applies to everyone. I don't even have a credit card. I've had nearly 20 years of adulthood in which to get one, have bought/leased cars and rented apartments without a problem (despite no card, paying off student loans means my credit score is pretty good), and I prefer the security of only spending money I've already got. Advertisers can have fun trying to squeeze blood money from a stone.

And nowdays you just know their $300 "service" is going to be "run it through an LLM."

I don't really understand this comment. You actually really believe you are the one person in history completely unaffected by messaging? I cannot imagine thinking that. I have no doubt it would be trivial to disprove this to you in an in person conversation but I'm not getting dragged into an argument here for it.

Oh, how about the ads for that insurance company that's just for military families? Way to bark up the wrong tree. Even if the point is to subtly convince me to join the United States military, that's still hilariously off-target. Never. gonna. happen.

those and even the charity ones kinda grate on me. We need to do stuff for americans who when young nonchalantly signed off on being willing to kill when told to but fuck other americans.

I don't want to stray into XKCD territory, but it does seem like people in general tend to be less...conscientious about such things than I. However, I'm oblivious about plenty of things myself that others are more aware of, so I guess it's just how different priorities work.

I buy the one that I liked the most.

On the other hand, you never see ads for beans and yet you can't stop thinking about them.

Yeah good point. Subconscious influence isn't real /s

seems strange to me that this (in the attached image) isn't the normal way people think

People who make financial decisions also tend to be poor. It's worse than that, those types of ads prey on the vulnerable.

is this (in the image) really not the normal way of thinking

Rubbish, I can stop thinking about beans any time I want.
...
...
Mmmmmmm, beans on toast with a bit of cheese. DAMNIT!

While we're clearing out the air, if I buy your shitty product, why do I still need to see your fucking ads?

They don't care, they get paid to show you the ads. And the people spending to get the ads delivered aren't given very good demographics or proof that the people seeing them are good candidates, all they know is that people are watching them and that some of those people click through.

It's not just about purchasing, but also reputation, familiarity, etc.

You probably simply never noticed. Maybe the grocery chain you buy at. Maybe a particularly flashy packaging of a food item in said grocery store. Maybe an outrageous fun sex toy you saw in porn. Maybe you're subscribed to a Patreon somewhere. Maybe you have a t-shirt of your favorite show. Do you really make all these decisions completely conscious of all advertising you saw before, making sure that you do not miss any better alternatives with worse advertising?

No person can think so much about all their decisions to spend money. No one can be so perfectly conscious of every single sensory input. Advertising works on everyone, you just don't even notice when it works on you.

Or worse.

Theres a product I need, never seen an ad for it. Go online, buy it. Thats all my ads are for the next 3 months like I'm some sort of fucking collector now.

I have always wanted to meet somebody that's clicked a targeted ad and bought the product. Even if I got an ad for something I wanted and it was a good price, I'd find a way to navigate around clicking it directly.

This is exactly how I feel when a monthly bill goes up as result of missed payment, I missed because I'm laid off and broke. What makes them think turning up the heat will result in me suddenly having money appear?

Shouldn't this save money?

Yeah, I am very oblivious to many civil rights issues for instance. I guess it's probably safe to assume I'm that kind of person to somebody out there, isn't it?

Are you sure the Bud Spencer and Terrace Hill movies haven't been a ad campaign by big Beans?

I appreciate the sentiment because I also hate ads, but just because you're not spending your disposable income on premium doesn't mean you couldn't theoretically spend it on something else.

How would that SAVE money? Buying groceries without knowing what you have at home and what you need?

And, closely related, the recurring "auto ship" suggestion for items like electric razors or oven mitts.

Yep, you nailed it, Alexa, I absolutely need one of these shipped every fucking week. Saved me so much hassle!

I interpreted it as meaning they decide on the specific brand when they're at the grocery store and are able to compare prices. They've already decided beforehand that they needed detergent.

the advertisement doesnt suppose to be some out of reach thing. more than likely targeted. also if you cant block ads or use modded apps you might be on apple, which means you probably will buy it.

It’s also demographic based. I get ads for hormones to fix the perimenopause, weed gummies and comfy pants.

Ads these days are run like internet scams they are there to trick the most vulnerable.

If you don't have money for either product then you are not their target demographic, and thus, you being inconvenienced or delayed does not concern them in the slightest.

Their goal is to get money from the people who have money. How they affect people with no money is not a factor in their decisions, since no money will be acquired from them regardless.

Huh. Okay, even then, prices don't fluctuate so wildly you'd have to make that decision every time.

But sales man

I love how many unique people who are immune to adds here are.

You are being effected by adds, you will do purchace decision effected by add campaing. You have done purchace decision effected by add campaign.

You can have moral standing and boycot companies. You can decite you dont use that one brand, but as long as you are consumer, your buying habits will always be slightly effected by adds.

May I introduce you to neurodiversity.

You say everyone is vulnerable to it, I'd like to change your view into: everyone is affected by it.

I am not saying I am deluded or immune but it affects me in quite opposite ways. You see, autists are known to be quite stubborn (in general or places). So there's this behavior that the more you push the more distance and negativity you'll receive.

That's how eg. Radio ads affect me. I can hardly endure listening to it (even passively) but the more I hear the repetition of one ad the more I will actively work against that product or company.

(there's also research into this counter forceyit just doesn't work and erode that way)

if its on a browser, you can just block it with adblockers.

Here in Australia, if two sex workers move in together and practice out of their homes, that's legally a brothel and they're criminals. And there are lots of legitimate reasons to do that. Safety in numbers, the fact that a fellow sex worker isn't going to judge you, three-ways. But it's illegal. And ridiculous laws like that are why a lot of sex workers in this country want full decrim.

Do shops around you keep sales secret from you until you enter the building? Get that information while you make your shopping list at home.

Fifteen million merits

Yeah, I instantly felt Myself feel judgy when you said you're oblivious to civil rights issues. If you wanna learn about them, I'd be happy to answer questions or just tell a story.

Here's one story. Australia doesn't technically have marriage equality. We have gay marriage, but that's not what I'm talking about. See, if you're on a disability pension, and you live with a partner, you get less money. They assume your partner will cover for you. So lots of disabled people can't afford to get married.

Because you still have to be inconvenienced for not paying the premium.

That's the neat thing, they don't.

Marketing looks like it is there to make you buy products, but it's a well-known fact that this doesn't work, and online ads specifically allow performance measurements, and they show that it's not worth the money.

So what are ads actually there for then?

First, remember that the thing that marketing departments are best at is marketing their own importance to company management. They are really good at convincing their companies that if they stop marketing, everything will collapse. So in this way, marketing is there to finance the marketing department, and everyone's too scared to stop marketing, because if they do they will be seen as the biggest idiots ever.

Second, marketing is there to provide a small revenue stream to the platform where you see the ads, but more importantly to punish you for not paying premium. Youtube makes you watch a shitton of ads, not because they care about whether you buy anything from the ads, but to punish you for not paying premium and to get you to do so. A premium customer brings in orders of magnitude more money than an ad-only customer.

No person can think so much about all their decisions to spend money.

Aw, I wish I didn't need to budget every cent, but with the small amount of pocket change I've got to buy things, being careful with it becomes normal. Most of the food I buy is straight up raw vegetables, or store brand frozen/canned items (which are bought because they're cheapest. Or is "advertisement" so broad of a term that it applies to ordinary price tags?) Clothing is whatever's affordable, fits, and looks and feels good enough. When you're teetering on the edge of homelessness (and have experienced it three times), survival becomes your main priority. Penny pinching is unavoidable. Frivolous spending becomes a pipe dream.

Even if ads are still sneaking info into my brain, I'm hard-pressed to think of any purchases I've made where brand names factor in. I'm really trying to think of something here, but even the less common things I've spent money on were chosen through experience (like a game I played with a friend, then decided I wanted a copy of) or research (like when I bought a solar generator last year. I'd never even heard of the company before I sought it out for myself.)

I guess a local Chinese food flyer put on a doorknob counts as advertising that works, though even then if they don't have decent veg options and prices, it's going to be a no-go. So sure, that's your "gotcha." Chinese food flyers. All the money spent on ads around the world, and the only thing I can recall purchasing based on it took some person taking a walk and hanging menus on doors.

I get it, ads are designed to manipulate, to put ideas into people's heads as a latent reminder, like a virus waiting for the right moment to strike. Maybe some day if I actually make enough money to not have to be extraordinarily careful with it, more of them might get a chance to work. Who knows. Right now, price is the biggest pain point, overriding brand recognition. With the way things are going, I don't expect that to change any time soon.

Perhaps the best advertisement would be if a company decided to lobby for higher wages - that'd definitely make a company name stick in my head in a positive way, and would provide me the opportunity to spend money on them, to boot!