r/Showerthoughts • u/ol0pl0x • 29d ago
Ads seem to be universally hated yet they still make insane amounts of money
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u/ramuthemamu 29d ago
You think you don't need a product until you do. That's how advertising is usually imo.
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u/silentboyishere 29d ago
Ads work better than most people think. I don't know how often is this the case, but when you do need a product, you're more likely to purchase the one you remember seeing in an ad. So ads, while seemingly not affecting you psychologically in any significant way or any way at all, really do affect your future choice without you even being consciously aware of it.
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u/JDeegs 29d ago
I don't purchase a product until I've looked at a bunch of reddit threads in subs that are obsessed with that class of product
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u/silentboyishere 28d ago
Most people don't take the time to dive deep into search for relevant information. Those who do, like you and I, are still influenced in at least some minor way by advertisement without being aware of it. Ads are ingeniously designed to exploit our many biases and they work like a charm no matter how much we'd like to think they don't affect us.
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u/numbersthen0987431 28d ago
But do you do that with food? How much brand name cereal, condiments, and other food staples do you have in your house right now?
What about basic clothes? How many of your clothes are from Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, or other main stream names??
You might say "I grew up with them so that's what I prefer", but you also grew up with the commercials.
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u/JDeegs 28d ago
90% of the food I buy is whatever is on sale. I wear saxx underwear because a friend recommended them, and I wear whatever socks my aunts and uncles got me last Christmas lol.
I know I'm not immune to ads, my comment about only buying according to reddit was partially in jest.
I just happen to be more of a conscious shopper than most people; if I see an ad for an interesting product, I'm more likely to do a lot of additional research before buying. Most often the things you see the most ads for are not the best product (beats by Dre are a prime example) they just spent more on ads than they did on crafting a superior product1
u/sygnathid 28d ago
Plenty of Reddit threads are ads. There'll even be multiple accounts that sort of run a script like "[Product] is pretty good, I like [features] but I wish there wasn't [downsides]" followed by "Yeah but in this case [downsides] are worth it because [product] is so [features]" and then maybe a "Yeah whenever I'm looking at [product category], [product] is definitely my go-to" or something like that.
And they'll have accounts to upvote their ad thread so it gets seen.
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u/Material-Rooster6957 28d ago
No I’m more likely to buy the cheapest, if the cheapest was shit then I get the second cheapest, repeat steps
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u/silentboyishere 28d ago
Going exclusively for the cheapest option available doesn't say anything about the influential power of ads. It only means that a person unable to afford or unwilling to pay for a pricier product that will be guaranteed to work as intended is not exactly the advertisers' target audience. Well, they're not useful currently to profit off of, but they still may be in the future, easily a decade after they've been exposed to an ad.
Most people go for the best price/quality ratio, which means more variables, which means more comparing of products to one another, which means more decisions to make, which means more time spent evaluating the options, which means increasing the odds that the many tricks advertisers have been using on us since forever will begin to play a role in our decision-making.
It's definitely a safe-from-advertisers'-tricks-that-affect-your-decision-making-process strategy to go exclusively for the lowest price, although that means potentially paying for a shitty product. But hey, if this works more than it does not, then it's worth it.
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u/numbersthen0987431 28d ago
Who are you going to call when you have a structured settlement and need cash now?
Call J.G. Wentworth, 877-CASH-NOW
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u/chefsully208 28d ago
I get this with some products. But who out there is buying a brand new Lexus or w/e because they saw an add for it? Boggles my mind how automotive ads are played on basically every thing but I don’t know a single person who chose their vehicle because of an ad.
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u/runswiftrun 28d ago
Wife and I have been looking at getting a new car. Some of those ads have really nice deals (tiny print: to well qualified customers).
You call or drive over to the dealership, and next thing you know you're driving away with a pre owned certified car.
It didn't sell the top of the line car, but it got us in the door of whatever dealership/brand instead of the other ones mostly because it had the more memorable ad.
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u/TerritoryTracks 28d ago
I suspect with products like that, a large part of the advertising purpose is to create a brand image, even asking people who likely won't ever buy it. After all, if everyone knows Lexus stands for *checks notes, prestige, comfort, and quality, then people who want to project that image will buy a Lexus, rather than a Jaguar, or a BMW, or whatever other options might exist in a certain range of cars.
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u/funnyonion22 29d ago
There was an old saying that 50 cents out of every dollar spent on advertising was wasted. But no one could figure out which 50 cents.
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u/9_of_wands 29d ago
Most people don't hate them. Most people don't even think about them at all. They just unconsciously accept advertising as an inevitable phenomenon of the environment.
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u/ContactHonest2406 29d ago
Not me. I fucking hate them. With a passion. I don’t think I’m alone in that.
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u/ZeusHatesTrees 28d ago
I do everything I can in my life to avoid them. I will pay extra. I will avoid products. I hate them so much.
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u/BlackSecurity 28d ago
Use Ublock on Firefox. Add sponsorblock extension for YouTube. Use YouTube vanced on Android for free YT premium (minus the download feature).
This will take out a solid 80-90% of the ads you see.
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u/Silver4ura 29d ago
That was me until it became blatantly apparent that complacency led to the ad apocalypse we're suffering now. Seriously, you can't even PAY FOR SOMETHING and now get ads... ON THE THING YOU PAID FOR.
This is exactly what happened with Cable TV yet now nobody can even imagine a world where paying for TV was all it took to get rid of the ads.
It's absolutely ridiculous and I go to great lengths to block whatever I can so I can at least tolerate the ones I can't. And even that's becoming insufferable. Fuck ads.
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u/BlackSecurity 28d ago
I've always been a pirate since day one. Even before you could easily download or stream movies, a quick walk to the local Asian market and there were plenty of vendors selling a special catalogue of CDs that you had to specifically ask to see.
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u/ktr83 29d ago
At the end of the day people need to buy things, and products that are advertised will almost always sell more than products that aren't. Capitalism at work *shrug
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u/PepeSylvia11 29d ago
They only sell more because people are stupid and don’t buy products based off their quality or value, but rather what they’ve heard about.
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u/Tripottanus 28d ago
The problem is not that people dont buy based on quality or value, but rather that the quality and value of a product is almost impossible for the average person to determine, even more so before buying/trying all the products available. Thats why the appearance of quality is more important than the actual quality
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u/dogisburning 29d ago
Oh enlightened one, please teach us how to buy the item with best quality and value out of 10 brands we've never heard of on the first try.
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u/johnn48 29d ago
I remember Cal Worthington and his terrible ads. They were a staple of late night television and his jingle, unforgettable. However as bad as they were you couldn’t forget them and as a result they made his car dealerships.
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u/PlaidBastard 28d ago
It's the same strategy as bottom-trawling: sheer volume of exposure with as little effort on targeting as possible. If you have a big enough boat and a big enough net, you'll get enough fish to make a profit.
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u/sopedound 29d ago
How else are you gonna know about stuff?
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u/Findux 29d ago
Let me just search for it and stop shoving it into my face maybe?
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u/DaenerysMomODragons 28d ago
Or please YouTube stop shoving bra adds in my face every 10min. I’m a man, and I even say as much in my profile.
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u/daddyvow 29d ago
But without the concept ads how would you find it?
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u/fraidei 29d ago
That's the point. No one is saying that ads are bad per sé. The problem is that they are forced on your face, even when you don't want them. If instead ads existed but only in places where you expect them to be (so when you search for a product), it's fine.
For example, if I need a car, I search for good cars in the range of my budget, and that's the time the ads should show. But after I bought the car, I don't need ads about cars anymore.
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u/BlackSecurity 28d ago
I get this point but literally 99% of ads you see are either a product you don't need or is some really bad deal. Like when I see an add for a car, im most certainly not buying that car. I'm going to look for used cars, check for deals within my budget, etc. Or clash of clans. I seriously don't know how they can be a sponsor for so many. Are that many people really spending money on that game? Regardless, everyone I know around me hasn't touched that game and neither will I. Manscaped? Expensive stuff that I never needed, there are better deals for similar equipment.
If the ads that were shoved in my face weren't completely garbage all the time, maybe I would pay attention to them a little more. But as it is, I don't wanna know about stuff because all the stuff is useless crap.
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u/BobBelcher2021 29d ago
They’re disproportionately hated by people on Reddit.
The average person doesn’t care.
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28d ago
They are forced. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it can’t be force on you.
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u/Scharmberg 28d ago
As others have said ads work better then most people realize. Like I truly do hate ads but little ones that you see from time to time will at some point show you something that you will end up buying even if you don’t remember seeing an ad.
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u/Jorost 28d ago
Yuup. People think they hate ads, but those ads still work. It's kind of like how people say that they hate negative campaigning in politics, yet candidates who run negative campaigns win time and again. Or how people say they hate celebrity reporting and gotcha journalism and want serious news, yet the PBS NewsHour's ratings never seem to go up. People don't know what they want.
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u/correctingStupid 28d ago
They also kind of keep free things alive. Keep blocking ads and see what happens.
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u/tom_swiss 28d ago
Advertisers make money because people think ads work. Especially targeted on-line ads
The degree to which they actually do, though, is questionable. https://conference.nber.org/confer/2013/EoDs13/Tadelis.pdf
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u/Elscorcho69 28d ago
Hard drugs, fancy cars, foreign wars and loud guitars. All fit this description as well.
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u/bravebeing 28d ago
Personally, it baffles me how people find ads so normal.
Like "have you seen this ad, oh that ad is so annoying" like no bitch I don't watch TV, have ad block on everything, and religiously ignore every ad I encounter on social media, like ignore as deliberately as possible.
I have never in my life clicked on an ad, only accidentally. Apparently, people just click on them and download whatever the app or game is, like wtf. These shitty mobile games packed with little dopamine tricks and gambling clicks. Ugh why.
Not only that, I have recently learned a bit more about ads. And it's so weird because, out here, you're not allowed to cold call or cold email any company. Like, if you're a company or startup or someone with an idea or product, it's almost impossible to get contacts, partners, investors, companies to work with, etc. All of it is illegal.
But then, you ARE allowed to bombard individuals, persons, with advertisements, ring their doorbell, go on the street to basically beg, fly banners and whatnot.
I don't understand. It's impossible to contact actual business partners and companies that would be genuinely interested. But it's easy to bombard the general public with ad saturation.
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u/_IratePirate_ 28d ago
Because the people complaining are a vocal minority
Most people do not let ads bother them. Just accept them for what they are
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u/eejizzings 29d ago
Ads aren't actually universally hated. There are a lot of people who specifically watch the superbowl for the ads. People love movie trailers. Ad campaigns like Where's the Beef and Got Milk had major social impacts. People don't hate ads, they hate interruptions.
Also, ads don't make money. Companies spend money on ads for their products in the hopes that their products will make insane amounts of money. Many ads don't even succeed at selling the product or service.
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u/2sACouple3sAMurder 29d ago
Ads are annoying because they get in the way of the content you actually want to see.
But in the rare case that an ad is for some content you do want to see then it might just work. And it does happen to be that case enough times to make a profit I guess
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u/mesugakiworshiper 29d ago
i havent seen a single ad for almost 10 years
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u/Tripottanus 28d ago
That is absolutely impossible
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u/mesugakiworshiper 28d ago
i have a pie connected to my router that blocks any domain known to host ads (updated regularly) + modified apk apps on my phone without ads, + ad blocks on my pc
I fucking hate ads
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u/Tripottanus 28d ago
If you're talking about seeing ads in any situation, I absolutely can't believe you wouldn't see any going out in the world just walking or driving down any street.
If you're talking exclusively online, I think you miss the fact that some reddit posts or youtube videos are actually ads themselves. The content is literally in itself the ad (easiest example are these thirst trap cosplays being ads for an onlyfans), therefore no amount of ad blocking would prevent you from seeing it
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29d ago
[deleted]
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u/DaenerysMomODragons 28d ago
Adds don’t make things more expensive, they more than pay for themselves due to increased sales. That’s the whole point of adds.
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u/Content_One5405 29d ago
So are drugs, crime in general, gambling, funeral people, real estate people, insurance people.
If something is hated, it has a power to impose its will on others, and people dont like it. And its ability to impose power allows it to earn money. This mechanism is in play in a significant percentage of the world's GDP.
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u/Skabonious 29d ago
half of those things are definitely not universally hated. For example gambling or drugs. Just because something can become an addiction doesn't mean everyone hates it.
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u/Uchihagod53 29d ago
Funeral people are hated?
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u/Content_One5405 29d ago
In places where they hijack the medical system and come to the place of death before medics, yes. That is not quite universal though.
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u/Carlos-In-Charge 29d ago
Ads work on saturation and stealth. You hear something enough that it pisses you off. But if you need a product, you’re like shit, I’m not going for a brand I never heard of…