You know what I want from advertising?
I want marketers to stop lying to me.
I want to not be looking at a photo gallery that says “11 pictures” and have the eleventh picture be an ad. Put an ad below each picture, or push me into an ad before showing me the last one, but don’t give me wrong information.
I want to know the price of a vehicle for the average person. Not the A-plan price or the price with 10 grand down.
I want easy methods to opt out – contact numbers for paper and electronic ads that let me say “no” and not to be told it will take six weeks to remove me from their list when it takes one week to add me in. I don’t care if they’ve already printed it three weeks ago – do us all a favor and recycle it before it gets to me.
I want advertising that doesn’t use the obvious persuasion tactics of bandwagonism, jingoism, or sex. Unless the product’s actually sexual, of course.
I want advertising that isn’t obtrusive. Slideshows before movie previews are great. Colorless, flat-sounding, disproportionate Television commercials that play after the listed start time of a movie but before the movie begins? Fuck off for wasting my time when I just paid 8.50 per ticket and 3.50 for a Cherry Coke that cost you ten cents. (I know theaters don’t make much profit, but making me watch movies at home is not the way out.)
Advertising has pushed too hard for too long. So hard that I don’t even see banner ads when I surf, unless they’re covering the content, and then I feel alienated. I am so very easy to alienate with a pushy marketing campaign (how many of you have heard me talk about Rock Financial’s saturation tactics?)
Don’t. act. like. my. opponent.
On the other hand, I do, actually, choose to look at ads of my own volition. Digital Juice, for instance, makes reasonably-priced video editing products and gives away free (useful) instructional videos. Their newsletter, which is one giant ad, is totally worth my time. I read Engadget diligently, which is one giant product paradise.
I’m just sayin’. Marketers: If you do not allow me to say “no, I’m not interested”, you will alienate me from your product. If you treat me like cattle, you will alienate me from your product. And I’m not alone.
You think Tivo’s a bitch? There’s a whole field of products out there that exist solely to keep our attention spans to ourselves, and they’re becoming more and more popular. If you keep manipulating us instead of persuading us, you won’t have a riot. Just a complete lack of relevance to the modern media-savvy adult.
You know them; they’re your most treasured demographic.
The trouble with advertising is similar to the trouble with American society (which I actually love) in general – we expect a linear or even exponential return on investment. So we figure if we work harder than the Joneses, we’ll have more than the Joneses. Which is great, until the Joneses work harder. So we work harder. So they work harder. So everyone’s pissed off and not sleeping and the return on investment is no longer linear but approaching an asymptote. And then going down!
Advertisers think they have to be louder than the next guy. Someone makes a little more noise, people notice their product. So I have to make more noise to get you to notice mine. Someone else made even more noise. I make even more noise. It’s snowballed to saturation. Everyone keeps trying to work harder, spend more, do more, sleep less, keep pushing. Everyone forgot the law of diminishing returns.
I think that’s true. Just look at one example: The banner ad. First it was static, and small, and of standard shapes. Then they changed shape and flashed. Then full animations. Then “video games” in banner ads, and Flash-style ads that fly helicopters around your fucking screen while you’re TRYING to read something. And, the cream of the crop… Windows-style error messages.
I want someone to ream the companies that use Windows Error Message style ads to promote themselves until they’re bankrupt and strangely sore.
The reason it keeps happening is, of course … they get more clicks. People really do click more often (sometimes by accident, like with the helicopter Army ad), and it will take some time before they realize the cost they are paying in negative reactions.
Most advertisers think that loud and flashy, and above all repetitiveness sells and will bring the customer in.
Apply directly to the head!
I think they planned its annoyance right from the get-go… I hate to think they think they ‘got smart’ by releasing follow commercials making fun of their own annoying commercials.
Now see, Buckley’s was right on from the start. “It tastes awful. And it works.” But
Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.
Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.
Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.
Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.
Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.
Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.
Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.
Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.
Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.
Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.
Head On. Apply directly to the forehead.
Head On. Apply dir..*crash*
This is SO true.
i also hate advertising.
commercials (and crapass shows) are pretty much a big reason i don’t watch tv any more. more than likely, it’ll be out on dvd eventually, and i won’t have to put up w/ commercials.
yeah, i mostly don’t see banner ads any more either. and i don’t understand how a dancing alien is going to make me want to check my credit score (or whatever the hell it was that they were advertising on myspace).
same goes for fucking credit card soliciting in my mail… IF I WANT YOUR FUCKING CREDIT CARD I.WILL.CONTACT.YOU. don’t bother wasting paper to send me your garbage that i’m not interested in.
There are opt out lists, like the Do Not Call registry.
opt-out.cdt.org/
https://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailing
Firefox also has an add on that will block all of the ads. Can’t remember the link but you should be able to find it from the Firefox home page.
we’ve put our names on these lists. we still get stuff :( it’s very frustrating.
I tend to tear up the credit card ads and put them in the return envelope that they’ve provided.
Those pre-paid postage bits don’t get charged to the credit card companies unless you send them back. And the weight of the entire advertisement is quite a bit more than the little return slip that they intend you to send back in.
i’ve heard of doing that before. i’m assuming you still get the offers tho?
I didn’t for a while, but I did when we formed Night Skies Publications.
The frequency of the offers seems to be directly related to my credit rating at the time.