6 ms·

Proving once again that consumers are easily influenced.

by miah_ 16y ago

hugh3 16y ago
I enjoyed the Old Spice ads so much that I considered going out and buying some just as a way of saying thanks. Call it a charitable donation to support the arts. (I still haven't actually bought any, though, as I still can't get over my mental image of Old Spice as "really cheap cologne.)
- Alex3917 16y ago
  Cheap cologne with hormone disruptors. Have fun not being able to have kids if you wear it.
  - amanfredi 16y ago
    Can you explain this at all?
    - Alex3917 16y ago
      Old Spice contains chemicals called phthalates that bind to your estrogen receptors. Exposure to these chemicals is essentially like taking a low-level version of the hormone replacement therapy that transgendered people (sometimes) use. Among other things your sperm count dramatically drops and the sperm you have left are much less viable. Exposure to chemicals like those found in Old Spice are primarily why 1 in 5 couples are now considered infertile. (Even though the government keeps changing the definition of infertility to mask the massive reduction in reproductive viability, so in reality it's actually much worse than even the already shocking 1 in 5 statistic.) If you want to know more check out this video: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=375127 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=375127
      - hugh3 16y ago
        I remain skeptical of the claims of "random internet guy" that "commonly used household product" is (without doubt) causing "horrible disease" and that "ban-happy government agency which is in charge of these sorts of things" hasn't got around to doing anything about it yet.
        Alex3917 16y ago
        Well if you had already read the academic literature for yourself then you wouldn't have to rely on a "random internet guy" for your health information. But if you're not willing to actually read the primary sources, the best you're going to get is second hand information. edit: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1280349/?tool=pmcentrez http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1280349/?tool=pm... http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Estrogenic-Phthalate-Esters.htm http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Estrogenic-Phthalate-Esters...
        mahmud 16y ago
        if you had already read the academic literature for yourself The burden of proof is on you, and you have yet to cite a reference :-) Or did you just want us to do our own research, and somehow find that paper, which you might be talking about and come to an agreement with you?
        hugh3 16y ago
        I have enough trouble keeping up with the academic literature in my own field, I'm not going to monitor the toxicology literature as well just in case. I doubt you do, either. Anyway, while I'm perfectly willing to accept that phthalates are dangerous in sufficiently large quantities (this holds for pretty much any organic chemical) I remain unconvinced by the unproven assertion that it holds a significant risk of sterility when applied externally to the skin in small quantities in the small concentrations present in cheap cologne. Alcohol is also present in colognes, and that's well known to have all sorts of bad effects at large dosages. I'm also skeptical of the even broader claim that exposure to phthalates is why one in five couples is infertile. Infertility has a zillion different causes, from Robertsonian translocations to endometreosis, and is a common human problem dating back to antiquity (see, for instance, the Bible, where every second woman is apparently infertile, at least until God shows up).
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
- MrRage 16y ago
  These ads certainly had better aesthetics than most, but something dies inside me when an advertisement is considered art. I also don't understand why you would view buying Old Spice as a charitable donation.
  - sorbus 16y ago
    The whole thing with "support companies you like, provide positive feedback to business models and ideas you support." If you, as a consumer, support a method of advertising and want more companies to do it in the future, there are two main ways of encouraging it: writing a letter, or buying the product. Writing a letter and not buying the product encourages them, but doesn't factor into cost analyses; buying the product factors into cost analyses, and both writing a letter and buying the product (and mentioning that you bought it because of the advertisement in the letter) provides ammunition for anyone at the company who supports the advertising method. It's like the people who spent upwards of $500 on the Humble Indie Bundle: providing positive feedback to encourage things like it to happen in the future. Treating it as a donation doesn't make sense, of course, and I have to agree that advertisements shouldn't be considered art, except in the most dramatic examples. Perhaps the meaning of art is a bit narrow, though; advertisements can certainly be artistic.
    - MrRage 16y ago
      If you think Old Spice makes excellent deodorant, body washes or whatever then by all means support them with your wallet. But why buy a product just because you liked the commercial? I just see that as being suggestible. People didn't spend $500 on the Humble Indie Bundle so they would put out more ads did they? They wanted to support indie games, no?
      - jasonlotito 16y ago
        I don't think anyone purchased their product just because of the commercial. Rather, these are individuals who possibly did in the past purchase Old Spice products, or Gillette products, or other well known brand name products they trusted. Now, when they go to buy these products again, they make a choice for Old Spice. A product they already like, but never made a real choice to buy. The commercials and publicity put Old Spice in their mind when they went to buy that type of product. Old Spice isn't trying to prove it has a good product. We know that. Rather, it's reminding us to make that choice Old Spice.
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  Have you considered that maybe it's not that Old Spice is really cheap cologne, but all the other stuff is stupidly overpriced cologne? The fact that most of the mainline colognes bear the name of extravagant product lines or music superstars should be a clue. As an example to support my argument, I'm in the process of making a classic cologne that requires some alcohol, (preferably very hard alcohol), some things from your spice cabinet, a few leaves, and more alcohol. I decided to grow my own leaves, and thus am currently in the 'grow the tree phase', but really that's not even necessary.
  - mwerty 16y ago
    I want my cologne to be associated with expensive stuff, not economy.
    - jasonlotito 16y ago
      I want my cologne to be associated with expensive stuff. I don't want my cologne to be expensive stuff.
      - hugh3 16y ago
        If you use enough cologne that you actually care how much it costs, you're using too much cologne, and I can probably smell you from here. A decent bottle might cost you sixty bucks, but it'll last years. Pennies per use.
        jasonlotito 16y ago
        I generally don't use cologne. =) But your point still stands, and is an interesting way of looking at it. I guess it's a case of not knowing if their really is a difference between the expensive stuff and the cheaper stuff.
    - sliverstorm 16y ago
      I would rather my cologne made me smell good/pleasant, than wealthy. Wealth may well be a selection criteria, but I've no interest in trying to play that card.
- pxlpshr 16y ago
  I just use their body spray as deodorant because my body doesn't freak out over aluminum ingredients which is found in almost all solid products (causes me to sweat excessively)... I also find the brand more timeless, a lot less obnoxious than AXE which just screams Ed Hardy. ps. The markup on cologne/perfume is ridiculous, it's liquid gold and why so many celebrities release their own variation. Your impression of cheap is simply defined by luxury pricing and marketing.
icey 16y ago
Isn't the existence of the entire advertising / marketing industry predicated on being able to influence consumers?
malbiniak 16y ago
if consumers are so easily influenced, why do so many startups have a hard time influencing them?
- robryan 16y ago
  Customers have never heard of them.
- wisty 16y ago
  Making a hit ad can't be easy. Not if you want to outdo everyone else screaming for eyeballs. Google just did an SVG on a bunch of matrices to find the websites you'd most likely end up on if you randomly walked over the entire internet. It's deceptively simple, but only in retrospect.

Proving once again that consumers are easily influenced.

by miah_ 16y ago

Proving once again that consumers are easily influenced.

hugh3 16y ago

I enjoyed the Old Spice ads so much that I considered going out and buying some just as a way of saying thanks. Call it a charitable donation to support the arts. (I still haven't actually bought any, though, as I still can't get over my mental image of Old Spice as "really cheap cologne.)

Alex3917 16y ago
Cheap cologne with hormone disruptors. Have fun not being able to have kids if you wear it.
- amanfredi 16y ago
  Can you explain this at all?
  - Alex3917 16y ago
    Old Spice contains chemicals called phthalates that bind to your estrogen receptors. Exposure to these chemicals is essentially like taking a low-level version of the hormone replacement therapy that transgendered people (sometimes) use. Among other things your sperm count dramatically drops and the sperm you have left are much less viable. Exposure to chemicals like those found in Old Spice are primarily why 1 in 5 couples are now considered infertile. (Even though the government keeps changing the definition of infertility to mask the massive reduction in reproductive viability, so in reality it's actually much worse than even the already shocking 1 in 5 statistic.) If you want to know more check out this video: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=375127 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=375127
    - hugh3 16y ago
      I remain skeptical of the claims of "random internet guy" that "commonly used household product" is (without doubt) causing "horrible disease" and that "ban-happy government agency which is in charge of these sorts of things" hasn't got around to doing anything about it yet.
      - Alex3917 16y ago
        Well if you had already read the academic literature for yourself then you wouldn't have to rely on a "random internet guy" for your health information. But if you're not willing to actually read the primary sources, the best you're going to get is second hand information. edit: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1280349/?tool=pmcentrez http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1280349/?tool=pm... http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Estrogenic-Phthalate-Esters.htm http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Estrogenic-Phthalate-Esters...
        mahmud 16y ago
        if you had already read the academic literature for yourself The burden of proof is on you, and you have yet to cite a reference :-) Or did you just want us to do our own research, and somehow find that paper, which you might be talking about and come to an agreement with you?
        hugh3 16y ago
        I have enough trouble keeping up with the academic literature in my own field, I'm not going to monitor the toxicology literature as well just in case. I doubt you do, either. Anyway, while I'm perfectly willing to accept that phthalates are dangerous in sufficiently large quantities (this holds for pretty much any organic chemical) I remain unconvinced by the unproven assertion that it holds a significant risk of sterility when applied externally to the skin in small quantities in the small concentrations present in cheap cologne. Alcohol is also present in colognes, and that's well known to have all sorts of bad effects at large dosages. I'm also skeptical of the even broader claim that exposure to phthalates is why one in five couples is infertile. Infertility has a zillion different causes, from Robertsonian translocations to endometreosis, and is a common human problem dating back to antiquity (see, for instance, the Bible, where every second woman is apparently infertile, at least until God shows up).
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
MrRage 16y ago
These ads certainly had better aesthetics than most, but something dies inside me when an advertisement is considered art. I also don't understand why you would view buying Old Spice as a charitable donation.
- sorbus 16y ago
  The whole thing with "support companies you like, provide positive feedback to business models and ideas you support." If you, as a consumer, support a method of advertising and want more companies to do it in the future, there are two main ways of encouraging it: writing a letter, or buying the product. Writing a letter and not buying the product encourages them, but doesn't factor into cost analyses; buying the product factors into cost analyses, and both writing a letter and buying the product (and mentioning that you bought it because of the advertisement in the letter) provides ammunition for anyone at the company who supports the advertising method. It's like the people who spent upwards of $500 on the Humble Indie Bundle: providing positive feedback to encourage things like it to happen in the future. Treating it as a donation doesn't make sense, of course, and I have to agree that advertisements shouldn't be considered art, except in the most dramatic examples. Perhaps the meaning of art is a bit narrow, though; advertisements can certainly be artistic.
  - MrRage 16y ago
    If you think Old Spice makes excellent deodorant, body washes or whatever then by all means support them with your wallet. But why buy a product just because you liked the commercial? I just see that as being suggestible. People didn't spend $500 on the Humble Indie Bundle so they would put out more ads did they? They wanted to support indie games, no?
    - jasonlotito 16y ago
      I don't think anyone purchased their product just because of the commercial. Rather, these are individuals who possibly did in the past purchase Old Spice products, or Gillette products, or other well known brand name products they trusted. Now, when they go to buy these products again, they make a choice for Old Spice. A product they already like, but never made a real choice to buy. The commercials and publicity put Old Spice in their mind when they went to buy that type of product. Old Spice isn't trying to prove it has a good product. We know that. Rather, it's reminding us to make that choice Old Spice.
sliverstorm 16y ago
Have you considered that maybe it's not that Old Spice is really cheap cologne, but all the other stuff is stupidly overpriced cologne? The fact that most of the mainline colognes bear the name of extravagant product lines or music superstars should be a clue. As an example to support my argument, I'm in the process of making a classic cologne that requires some alcohol, (preferably very hard alcohol), some things from your spice cabinet, a few leaves, and more alcohol. I decided to grow my own leaves, and thus am currently in the 'grow the tree phase', but really that's not even necessary.
- mwerty 16y ago
  I want my cologne to be associated with expensive stuff, not economy.
  - jasonlotito 16y ago
    I want my cologne to be associated with expensive stuff. I don't want my cologne to be expensive stuff.
    - hugh3 16y ago
      If you use enough cologne that you actually care how much it costs, you're using too much cologne, and I can probably smell you from here. A decent bottle might cost you sixty bucks, but it'll last years. Pennies per use.
      - jasonlotito 16y ago
        I generally don't use cologne. =) But your point still stands, and is an interesting way of looking at it. I guess it's a case of not knowing if their really is a difference between the expensive stuff and the cheaper stuff.
  - sliverstorm 16y ago
    I would rather my cologne made me smell good/pleasant, than wealthy. Wealth may well be a selection criteria, but I've no interest in trying to play that card.
pxlpshr 16y ago
I just use their body spray as deodorant because my body doesn't freak out over aluminum ingredients which is found in almost all solid products (causes me to sweat excessively)... I also find the brand more timeless, a lot less obnoxious than AXE which just screams Ed Hardy. ps. The markup on cologne/perfume is ridiculous, it's liquid gold and why so many celebrities release their own variation. Your impression of cheap is simply defined by luxury pricing and marketing.

icey 16y ago

Isn't the existence of the entire advertising / marketing industry predicated on being able to influence consumers?

malbiniak 16y ago

if consumers are so easily influenced, why do so many startups have a hard time influencing them?

robryan 16y ago
Customers have never heard of them.
wisty 16y ago
Making a hit ad can't be easy. Not if you want to outdo everyone else screaming for eyeballs. Google just did an SVG on a bunch of matrices to find the websites you'd most likely end up on if you randomly walked over the entire internet. It's deceptively simple, but only in retrospect.