5 ms·

Another data point confirming that the advertising industry is actively hostile towards consumers.

jacquesm 5y ago
Did it need any more data points? It's fairly incredible that it is legal that we are being bombarded 16 out of 24 hours per day with sponsored messages in one form or another. The only medium that is still inviolate is books.
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  "The only medium that is still inviolate is books." Mostly. I actually have some very old books lying around - with advertisement for various, non existent products in them. But gladly I have not seen any open advertisment in any modern book.
  - tudorw 5y ago
    Shush, you'll give them ideas ;)
- endominus 5y ago
  Not so inviolate. There are a number of companies (usually high end designer brands; think Prada and jewelry) that commission authors to make books featuring their products. This has been going on for years, but I don't know the efficacy. Then again, no one really knows the efficacy of any kind of advertising.
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    Even Ian Fleming did a lot of product placement in his books. Though not sure if he was paid for it.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    Ugh, that never even crossed my mind. I'll be on the lookout for it.
vkk8 5y ago
Isn't it what it's supposed to be? I mean, their purpose is to persuade me do something that I otherwise wouldn't want to do (usually, to buy some product). How is this not hostile to begin with?
- namenotrequired 5y ago
  In a perfect world, the purpose might be something like, to inform us about things we would already want if only we knew about them.
  - amelius 5y ago
    The human mind is more subtle. It's like why most people in real life don't say "hey, I'm open to sexual intercourse, just in case you were wondering". Some kinds of information are simply not desired at all times.
- ThalesX 5y ago
  I'm a big critic of marketing, but marketing is supposed to do a lot of stuff. Perhaps persuasion of the form you have experienced is the worst they could do. First of all it should understand a market in order to help build a fitting product, and afterwards it should educate people that might stand to benefit from it, about the existence of said product and the benefits. Somewhere along the line I think marketing people found themselves singing to the choir of intrusive ads, just as devs find ourselves singing to the choir of Agile (with a capital A) and whatever else might fancy those on top.
- asdff 5y ago
  Advertising used to be benign things like alerting farmers to an improved plowing technology in a trade magazine. Then companies realized they could get away with selling an unneeded/worse/disposable product if they just outright lied about it, and took advantage of the goodwill the public had towards advertisements to reap profit.
JohnWhigham 5y ago
Nah, it's worse than that. Bringing morality into it would actually be better; it'd be easier to understand and rally against if companies were doing this because they were "evil". But they aren't, they're just greedy and want money.

Did it need any more data points? It's fairly incredible that it is legal that we are being bombarded 16 out of 24 hours per day with sponsored messages in one form or another. The only medium that is still inviolate is books.

hutzlibu 5y ago
"The only medium that is still inviolate is books." Mostly. I actually have some very old books lying around - with advertisement for various, non existent products in them. But gladly I have not seen any open advertisment in any modern book.
- tudorw 5y ago
  Shush, you'll give them ideas ;)
endominus 5y ago
Not so inviolate. There are a number of companies (usually high end designer brands; think Prada and jewelry) that commission authors to make books featuring their products. This has been going on for years, but I don't know the efficacy. Then again, no one really knows the efficacy of any kind of advertising.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  Even Ian Fleming did a lot of product placement in his books. Though not sure if he was paid for it.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Ugh, that never even crossed my mind. I'll be on the lookout for it.

vkk8 5y ago

Isn't it what it's supposed to be? I mean, their purpose is to persuade me do something that I otherwise wouldn't want to do (usually, to buy some product). How is this not hostile to begin with?

namenotrequired 5y ago
In a perfect world, the purpose might be something like, to inform us about things we would already want if only we knew about them.
- amelius 5y ago
  The human mind is more subtle. It's like why most people in real life don't say "hey, I'm open to sexual intercourse, just in case you were wondering". Some kinds of information are simply not desired at all times.
ThalesX 5y ago
I'm a big critic of marketing, but marketing is supposed to do a lot of stuff. Perhaps persuasion of the form you have experienced is the worst they could do. First of all it should understand a market in order to help build a fitting product, and afterwards it should educate people that might stand to benefit from it, about the existence of said product and the benefits. Somewhere along the line I think marketing people found themselves singing to the choir of intrusive ads, just as devs find ourselves singing to the choir of Agile (with a capital A) and whatever else might fancy those on top.
asdff 5y ago
Advertising used to be benign things like alerting farmers to an improved plowing technology in a trade magazine. Then companies realized they could get away with selling an unneeded/worse/disposable product if they just outright lied about it, and took advantage of the goodwill the public had towards advertisements to reap profit.

JohnWhigham 5y ago

Nah, it's worse than that. Bringing morality into it would actually be better; it'd be easier to understand and rally against if companies were doing this because they were "evil". But they aren't, they're just greedy and want money.