the compulsion to show people ads at all times and in all possible locations really is bizarre. how is that, of all things, what continually drives massive businesses? it's so meta and empty and undesirable to so many people, how has that become the norm?
@paco uh, no it isn't? humans existed for approximately 250,000 years without paying for anything?
@walruslifestyle That is true. And if you want to live with no more than the comforts and amentities we had 1000 years ago, I promise you you can do that with no money and none of the intrusive ads. But many things we have come to depend onโand the ads that you were complaining aboutโdid not exist even FIFTY years ago. Much less 250,000. Rhetorical exaggerations like that are a low-effort waste of timeโyours and mine.
@paco so why are you wasting your time? I don't think you caught my original point nor my clarifications so how about we bow out of this
The thing is, it doesn't actually work. Each boost in obnoxiousness gains the advertiser a temporary boost in revenue before a) everyone else does it too and b) people get inured to it. It's a race to the bottom and what we're seeing now is the finish line rapidly approaching.
If advertising had stayed where it was in 2003, it'd still be making just as much money but without the malware, tracking or ad blockers.
@suetanvil @bob having worked a bit creating software for marketing people, I can tell you that the sane among them know their own business is bogus. the correlations between advertising spend and change in any meaningful business outcome are so weak no one in their right mind would believe them. it's superstition imo
@bob it does not work, though. advertisers want you to believe it does, but that's what advertising is for!
I think it does, and I think it's naive to assume that advertising doesn't work.
Years ago when I started blocking ads more seriously I noticed that I also wasn't buying so much gadgety stuff or paying attention to fadish things I didn't really need. It's only when you cut that out of your life that you notice how much it was influencing you previously.
@bob yes, as someone who has written software for marketing firms and has reviewed articles for marketing journals, I'm definitely naive
It might be that the actual content of advertising doesn't matter that much, so long as it contains the message that X exists. If you're bombarded with messages saying that X exists then if to want something similar to X it's going to be at the top of the cognitive pile.
@bob @boneidol everyone says this and thinks it's intuitive.
but I've seen actual data. multimillion dollar ad campaigns that might have moved sales up by 1%, maybe. a figure well within the margin of error of how these data are collected, and laughably unscientific anyway.
so go on with your superstition, I'll stick with the facts I've seen.
lol at splainy responses to this
@walruslifestyle People want stuff and services and they don't want to pay for them with cash/money. They don't want those services delivered by the public sector paid for by taxes. That leaves the private sector paying for products/services that are free to the user, but trying to find a way to pay for them without charging directly for the thing itself. The desire to have things without paying for them is equally unnatural.