Will we ever see an add free society? (1 Viewer)

[DeathStar1]

I don't know why but i find it amazing that adds work at all..

Are we ever going to live in a society in our life time that isn't based on selling you something? I was reading how the oldies format in FM radio is being dropped because it's not 'ad friendly' anymore. All stations seem to be switching to the same overplayed crap that exists on every station these days...

When will people realise that probably 76% of the population has learned to tune out adds, and are focused on the content only?

I'm just waiting for someone to invent the idea seen in Futurama. Where Fry has an add beamed to him in a dream...
That's probably going to be the next step .

 

[Holadem]

EDITED: What makes you think they don't work?

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H

 

[RichP]

I thought this thread was going to be about Attention Deficit Disorder.

The shorthand for Advertisement is Ad, not Add.

 

[Micah Cohen]

Holadem is correct.

We're sheeple. Ads work on us.

And now, everything's an advertisement. Every pop song, every blockbuster movie, every television show. They are all merely advertisements for other advertisements.

Suckers.

MC

 

[DeathStar1]

Whoops. Didn't see that typo. 'My bad'

 

[Jay H]

We will live in an ad-free society when people decide that they want to PAY for it.

Jay

 

[RobertR]

Any society that no longer had people interested in selling things would not be based on capitalism, and would not be a society I'd want to live in. And of course advertising works. It wouldn't exist if it didn't, anecdotes about not liking a particular ad notwithstanding.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Some ads are desirable—for example when HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray hit the market, how, other than advertising, will most consumers know anything about the product(s)?

Most OTA TV is funded by advertising and most popular shows would die without ads to pay for their production.

And on and on.

 

[Micah Cohen]

You already pay for ads. You have cable TV or satellite TV service. You pay for TV. And still... you get nothing but ads. Ever notice that? One station goes to ads, and you channel surf and it turns out that all the other stations have ads on at exactly the same moment as well. You are PAYING to see these ads! You're PAYING FOR ADS!

The average hour-long show you watch on pretty much any channel of the 500 channels you pay to watch is only about 42 minutes long. The other 18+ minutes is... ADS!

You're already paying for ads.

Sucker.

MC

 

[ChristopherDAC]

I very rarely pay any attention to advertisments. For all of me, the various stores could just publish weekly price lists. Unfortunately, we have been in the world of the "hard sell" for a long time now ; schools and the culture as a whole discourage critical thinking, and so people are swayed by whatever advertisments and other propaganda come down the pike.

And anyway, there is nothing about capitalism per se which implies a continuous blitzkrieg of commercial propaganda. It is more a manifestation of the Keynesian political-economic model, in which the "good citizen" has disappeared and is replaced by an infantile "consumer" (Give it to Mikey, he'll eat anything!).

 

[RobertR]

It's always the individual's responsibility to be well informed about what's being sold to him, whether it's a product, an idea or person being pushed by political advocates, or a way of thinking.

 

[Holadem]

On NPR the other day:

The advent of Google Earth led some guy to discover the next, currently near virgin ad real estate:

roofs

A real goldmine. Expect this to explode in coming years.

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H

 

[RobertR]

LOL, Holadem.

 

[MichaelBA]

Has an ad ever actually persuaded you to buy something you were never interested in before?

 

[Lew Crippen]

Micah, OTA STANDS for Over The Air—that is, those stations that one can receive with an antenna, not via a cable or satellite system. Although it is true that in countries like England, one does pay a fee to receive OTA TV, that is not yet the case in the States.

OTA TV is paid for by advertising. This includes traditional network TV that you receive via cable or satellite. The fees you pay for cable or satellite go to pay for that company’s infrastructure, the fees that they in turn pay to non-network service providers (such as ESPN) and for that company’s operating expenses and their profit.

This means that you are correct that you are paying to watch ESPN and to watch their advertising as well, but it is not necessarily correct that you pay to watch Law and Order and to watch their advertising.

Of course you do pay an extra fee to watch shows on HBO, but they don’t have advertising (except of course their internal, self-promotion ads).

You can easily get TV for free by canceling your cable subscription and only watching OTA TV. Or you can watch commercial-free TV by paying for cable or satellite and only watching commercial free channels such as HBO and C-Span.

In short, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

 

[Holadem]

Robert, I wasn't kidding. But for some reason I am unable to find the link.

I wouldn't go as far as "something I was never interested in before". But consciously or otherwise (which a lot of people seem to understimate), I know I've been nudged towards certain products vs others.

How many inquiries did we have on this forum regarding fat burning pills, ab-shaping belts and the like? How do you think these people became aware of such products?

How about cars? The new 2006 [insert model] never caught your attention before you became sick of the commercials? How do you think most people become aware of the new models? I remember seeing the new 2000 (or 2001 or 2?) Nissan Altima on TV and knowing I wanted one immediately, long before I saw the real thing. It was the British Airways commercial that made made realize I could fly to Europe for $199 + tax. And these are only my conscious decisions.

Strangely enough, very few will acknowledge that ads affects their decisions on a subconscious level. Few will want to consider the possibility that were it not for the constant barrage of ads, they might have kept that paid-for car a couple of years longer, rather than switching to the brand new stuff. I guess they are uncomfortable with acknowledging that they can so succesfully be manipulated. The illusion of control...

Now don't go believing this means I like ads, I don't. I just disagree with the notion that they are useless.

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H

 

[RobertR]

I know, Holadem. I was just amused at the image it brought to my mind.

No, but ads are a useful informational device to inform me of things I didn't know about (why would anyone object to the dissemination of information?). They're a pointer to finding out more.

 

[D. Scott MacDonald]

I completely agree with Holadem. I have no idea how many purchases I have made due to advertising since most of it would have occurred on a sub-conscience level. As I age and mature, I like to think that I am less resistent to them, however.

Have you ever wondered why TV shows are always targeting the 18 - 30 crowd, even though this demographic makes up only a small amount of the population? It's because this demographic on average is much freer with their money, and is much more influenced by advertising. So when older people complain that all TV is targeted towards the younger crowd, it's really because they are the ones paying the bills.

Consider the commercial in the 80s where Michael Jackson endorsed Pepsi. At the time it was pretty well known that he did not drink Pepsi, and he refused to actually drink it in the commercial, but Pepsi still paid a very large amount of money just for Michael to hold the can in his hand. I forget the actual numbers, but I recall the results were a huge momentum boost for Pepsi, and if I'm not mistaken (quite possibly I am) this helped lead to Coke's desperate counter with New Coke (which no amount of advertising seemed to help).

 

[RobertR]

That fact, along with other examples such as the Edsel and the midi-skirt dispels the idea that people are mindless robots who buy whatever advertising tells them to buy. People decide what they like. Effective advertising just taps into it.

 

[DaveF]

They affect my choices for product categories in which I am ignorant and have little interest. Thus, my choices in things like laundry detergent, toothpaste, soap are affected by ads. Having heard of something on TV makes me feel more comfortable in buying the brand item.

They can also pique my interest in trying some new products that I otherwise wouldn't know about.

They also affect my interest in movies: a good trailer can motivate me to see a mediocre movie and a lousy trailer can keep me from a great movie (until I learn better).