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People have been demanding your attention to sell you things since people had things to sell - vendors shouting out from market stalls to storefront displays to

People have been demanding your attention to sell you things since people had things to sell - vendors shouting out from market stalls to storefront displays to door to door sales to newsprint, radio and television ads. Getting your attention has literally always been a part of selling things.

mschuster91 4y ago
One might be tempted to wonder how a communist or at least strongly government-regulated economy would fare. When you have only one supermarket chain, for example, why do advertising at all? Why have dozens of variations of the same products, just with different brands, assaulting your eyes the whole time you walk through a supermarket? Or worse, not just our eyes but also our ears with "store radio" yelling at us to try the new novelty super-soft toilet paper? That is maybe the worst side effect of the USSR collapse: once the counter-example went away, capitalism had free rein in going as excessive as it wanted, because the alternative (not being blared at by ads all the time) simply didn't exist any more. We literally can't imagine such a place any more... it reminds me of 1984, with the difference that we don't lack the words to describe that, instead we know that without a worldwide revolution, there will be no realistic way of turning the wheels.
- zdragnar 4y ago
  The USSR had tons of advertising. Instead of a product, it was pitching the government. Instead of advertising, it was called agitprop. Instead of 12 kinds of toilet paper, you were lucky to have any to pick from. If you wanted furniture, or a car, or any other big ticket purchase, you'd have a years long wait (I've seen others mention 10 years to get a car) to get your order fulfilled. I'll be honest, nostalgia for the glories of command economy USSR is not really what I expected to see today when I woke up.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - mschuster91 4y ago
    The USSR was all but glory, I agree, and yet it kept rabid capitalism in the West in check.

mschuster91 4y ago

One might be tempted to wonder how a communist or at least strongly government-regulated economy would fare. When you have only one supermarket chain, for example, why do advertising at all? Why have dozens of variations of the same products, just with different brands, assaulting your eyes the whole time you walk through a supermarket? Or worse, not just our eyes but also our ears with "store radio" yelling at us to try the new novelty super-soft toilet paper? That is maybe the worst side effect of the USSR collapse: once the counter-example went away, capitalism had free rein in going as excessive as it wanted, because the alternative (not being blared at by ads all the time) simply didn't exist any more. We literally can't imagine such a place any more... it reminds me of 1984, with the difference that we don't lack the words to describe that, instead we know that without a worldwide revolution, there will be no realistic way of turning the wheels.

zdragnar 4y ago
The USSR had tons of advertising. Instead of a product, it was pitching the government. Instead of advertising, it was called agitprop. Instead of 12 kinds of toilet paper, you were lucky to have any to pick from. If you wanted furniture, or a car, or any other big ticket purchase, you'd have a years long wait (I've seen others mention 10 years to get a car) to get your order fulfilled. I'll be honest, nostalgia for the glories of command economy USSR is not really what I expected to see today when I woke up.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- mschuster91 4y ago
  The USSR was all but glory, I agree, and yet it kept rabid capitalism in the West in check.