Consumerism ahhhhh moment
14d 21h ago by lemmy.dbzer0.com/u/Viking_Hippie in mildlyinfuriating from i.redd.it
cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/7858415
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/meme by /u/ProEpikGamer90 on 2026-02-20 05:38:25+00:00.
You know I cannot be the only one that will consciously decide to not buy brands that make intrusive adverts. But, they must also know that. So I can only assume that the majority of people don't think the same and it's an overall upside for these annoying ads.
That baffles me too. Being annoyed by an obnoxious ad instantly puts the brand in my naughty, to-boycott list.
Like, if I ever need to use a VPN, guess who I'll go out of my way to never, ever use? That's right NordVPN, go fuck yourself! I've never used you and I already hate you.
How do people care so little that it's still a beneficial strategy for brands?
I just assume that anyone who needs to spend a lot on bothering me about their product.. is either pushing a really shitty product, or offering it at a really shitty price, because so far that has been the case about 90% of the time.
If it was a good value, people would spontaneously recommend it when appropriate, with only light advertising in places where it makes sense (athletic gear advertised on sports websites, for example). Hell, it doesn’t even have to be all that good a product, just better than the alternatives. I mean look at Linux! :p
It’s so clear when you know what’s going on, but I think most people operate under the assumption that if they constantly hear about it and don’t hear bad things to the same degree, that the thing must be good. Propaganda is everywhere saying exactly that in lots of different ways, so hard to really blame them..
or offering it at a really shitty price
Advertising budget has to come from somewhere. If you can afford to inundate me with constant ads, then I know your product costs way more than it needs to.
Correct. Ads work extremely well. The simple and short explanation is that most people are dumb.
Adblockers are not that difficult to install, so I'd guess the slice of people who really resent ads enough to actually make purchasing decisions out of spite but also who still watch them isn't that big.
AdNauseam is great :)
I've tried it, but the only "ads" I've had it collect in the past are cookie banners, random reddit posts, and thumbnails on a Google search page (only used a Google search page to try and see if it would actually collect ads)
There is a third category here: people who also hate ads but pay to turn off the ads, recognizing that a service takes money to operate. You’re not the only one who hates ads, and if you simply eschew them, that’s great. But we have a lot of people here who want to get everything for nothing, and that’s just not a tenable plan.
I mean look at the entitlement in the post. “Your” ads but “my” video.
This is the key.
Ads don’t care if you like or don’t like them, as long as you remember them.
The worst thing an ad can do is be forgettable
I don't know how having me associate their name with a spike of rage is a good thing. There are definitely companies I went from being neutral towards to never considering them again due to their advertising methods. For example I've never eaten at Quiznos because of those fucking rat commercials they did like 20 years ago. I'm not even sure if that place still exists or not. I hope not, and I hope whoever came up with those commercials is dead.
Sorry dude, you're on lemmy. Nobody is here because it's the easiest or best. Most of us are here because we're the types who don't like getting fucked over. I wholeheartedly agree that ads in and of themselves are annoying and fucking detest those Quiznos commercials but we're the "weird" ones here. Most people loved those ads and Quiznos sold a ton of crappy sandwiches. Sadly advertising works on most people.
Every single ad these days go into a memory black hole. They are so irritating, so invasive, so EVERYWHERE; that I instinctively dissociate from anything in them.
They won't get my conscious or subconscious attention. All of my large purchases are researched a minimum 2 weeks in advance and anything small is done on a case by case basis (of which I intentionally scrutinize anything I might have "heard of" because I'm aware of the phenomenon. Fuck all ads, they are my enemy.
I literally pay money to not see ads in my (local) streaming services.
The irritation and mental load from dealing with shitty ads is well worth the about 15€ a month I pay to have them removed.
I bet you were thinking about some add when writing this.
Disagree.
I may be in the minority but the more I know about you, the less I ever want you in my house.
I will literally go by an LG Washing Machine out of spite because Sony showed up too much in ads.
They are playing statistics, most people that think they are immune to ads are full of shit and even if they somehow defy common human behavior it isn’t really relevant to an advertising effort that doesn’t care about the minority.
If your product can't enter my world without you paying millions of dollars to interrupt my good time, I am positive I do not need to know about your product.
Sorry but wrong. You are not going to win this kind of battle against advertisers. If you notice the intrusion and hate the product, you weren't in the market for their product in the first place. They don't care that you hate their company. When you are in the market for the product, you won't notice the intrusion or it won't matter if you do; the ad is still increasing your exposure to their product in the ways that increase your chances of buying.
I agree with this. Ads contaminate your mind, so make sure to use ad blockers. But also help your friends set up ad blockers, because if their minds are contaminated, it will spread to you.
I don't know. Bad word of mouth can severely harm a product I think. So they should really care if there are millions of people who absolutely despise them.
By the way, completely unrelated, don't use Wix if you're making a website. It's awful. Also, I heard it was mentioned in the Epstein Files. Could be untrue but just to be safe don't use Wix if you don't want you and your website to be linked to Jefferey Epstein. Wix, the child predator's choice. Allegedly.
I actually am planning on making a website soon. I'll have to keep Wix in mind.
I've bought competitors out of spite.
Would you pay a higher price to do so?
Would you (or could you even afford to) pay twice the insurance premiums because Liberty or State Farm ads annoy you?
I currently do, maybe not twice, but about 20% more to avoid them
I also refuse to buy several cheaper car companies because of ads I saw years ago, and bought a more expensive car for my wife to avoid them
I don't know the price difference, but there's also a toilet paper brand I will never buy
I'm sure lots of ads work on me, but if your ad is annoying enough, I will pay significantly more to your competitor
Sometimes even if you buy from different place the owner of the companies are the same. Like if you ask offers for new windows in norther europe the three biggest companies are owned by same company.
Also later in time when one is making a choice for a kind of product one doesn't usually buy, one might have forgotten their dislike for a brand due to their excessive use of advertising and yet their subconscious is still giving them a feeling of familiarity when they see that brand's name on a product which makes it more likely that they'll chose it over other options that don't feel as familiar.
Most advertising nowadays is meant to affect subconscious impulses which will do their thing with no cognitive effort, whilst the position the OP holds (and which I myself try to) is conscious and requires cognitive effort to maintain.
I've already won by not buying their shit.
Ads work. Consumer behavior is among the most studied phenomenoms in the world.
It's almost like there's a multi billion industry based on it!
Its over 1.3 Trillion per year by now, thats more than the Military budget of the usa. You could buy about 80 aircraft carriers with that. Every year.
Where do they get that money?
Oh yeah, it's why everything is priced the way it is.
So they can use that money against us.
But I'm sure lemmy geniuses know more about it...
They used to.
Why do you see diminishing returns lately? Because more money into more ads lead to consumer fatigue.
Especially those sponsor segment that have nothing to do with me because i'm not from the west.
Try SponsorBlock.
Actual magic. Never see the sponsors, or other such annoyances. Cannot recommend it enough.
Do be warned tho, on rare occasions segments get submitted for literally every time something is mentioned, even if it's not part of the actual sponsorship segment. I saw a video once that had well over 10 segments and it just kept skipping them. Turned off sponsorblock to discover someone literally cut out every time they said the name of the sponsor even if it wasnt part of the actual ad.
Oh that is true, it’s not without its flaws.
I also sometimes consciously dislike things because of annoying ads.
But it doesn't matter. The overall result is that now you're aware of that brand, you have a place for it in memory. After time passes it will be The One I've Heard Of unless you're dedicated to remembering to avoid it. There's something called the Mere Exposure Effect - it mostly works and they know it. :(
"You are without a doubt the worst product I’ve ever heard of.”
“But you have heard of me."
called the Mere Exposure Effect - it mostly works
...is what the 90% market leader says, who profits from it the most.
If it didn't work they wouldm't profit from it.
Advertising exists for a reason, and that's becsuse it's very effective.
That's not how executives work.
Edit: i say, it maybe works somewhat in traditional ads but not as much in annoying ads (popups, inline, in-video) as Google promises. And that executives are often enough a bit naive in promises for savings/wins (see AI programner promises vs. reality and how they still jump on it). Also, how the internet marketplace works (programmatic advertising), it's on mere promises only anyway.
Executives rarely work at all.
There are some exceptions, for example I still hate a company for their yt ads I saw before I figured out how to block them on phone. It has been like 6 years, the company was sold and name was changed, but I still remember to hate it and avoid it. Also, good products don't need advertisement, so if I can remember I saw an ad for something, I'd prefer other brand.
good products don't need advertisement
Oh yeah? Name the best, highest quality product you've never heard of.
You don’t really see advertisements for things like mega yachts or helicopters. Or private jets.
Most things that you’ll have to talk to a dealer or rep for, you don’t actually see ads. Except maybe cars.
Those reps are advertising, just not to us.
Easy, look at a couple of comparison websites whenever you need a specific product, and compare them to each other.
You'll get a somewhat unbiased idea of what the best product is to your specifications, and they are full of brands you never heard of.
I've got bad news about most comparison sites. They're ads.
I never said that I shouldn't hear about it, only it shouldn't have advertising. So recommendations by friends are helpful, so is personal experience in a store or review by trusted source. And for example, all of FOSS software doesn't have ads for them and often is better than paid counterparts.
Too many people here are saying that ads don't work.
Whether they work or not doesn't matter. The problem is that ads are literally designed and optimized to manipulate you out of your money, and to cause you to make decisions on emotion rather than reason. This is unethical at its core. How most people are ambivalent towards companies manipulating us is beyond me.
Yeah it kinda blows my mind with politics. Time and again more money means more ads and results in more wins. I mean its not 100% but its enough that if someone wins while spending less and is not the incumbent its a news item. We have an open senate seat here and the front runner with the war chest is the one I least want to win. I really don't get it as I find most ads turn me off to their subject. I mean even negative ads about the opponent turn ya off to the one its for. But obviously it seems to work overall. I hate it.
Advertising is one of the most prolific environmental pollutants of economic activity, and needs to become as socially acceptable as smoking.
Id argue its worse than smoking. Its closer to successfully lobbying the government to force doctors to recommended smoking for newborns.
I guess you aren't european then
This was today in a friend group of mine's discord server
Does anybody actually PLAY raid shadow legends, or is it just an ad for nothing? I don't think I've ever seen the actual game play or heard anyone ever mention playing it.
Streamers play it purely to advertise
Gaming has become such bullshit in this regard.
I mean it’s so rare nowadays to come across a game where you can tell: this is made by someone who genuinely wanted to make this game for the sake of making/playing it.
It’s always just another micro transaction storefront with graphics.
And ads aren’t any different, contrived bullshit.
*mainstream gaming.
There's still a world out there not bothered by this. I'm a big spender but AAA gaming lost me a while ago. On all systems I've got more games to play than I could ever have the time for.
made by someone who genuinely wanted to make this game for the sake of making/playing it.
There is nothing wrong with developers wanting to get paid for their labor. You want, and deserve, to be paid for your labor. Why don't they??
If you stay away from AAA, AAAA gaming and you get solid deals made by people trying to make an honest living. It's not that hard. I haven't bought or felt any need to buy micro transactions since Horse Armor came out.
Good games are the ones without this problem; usually indie games are the good ones because greedy executives are not involved in them.
Adblock + sponsorblock
This is the way, I am amazed how many people just rawdog the internet on a daily basis.
"This has got to be the worst advertisement I've ever heard."
"Ah but you have heard it."
I got real into Zero Punctuation about a decade ago, so I'd watch a load of 5 minute youtube videos back to back.
It would serve me the same goddamn ad for a Mission Impossible movie between every one. The ad had this hateful nasally music that went "ready or not, here I come."
I have not paid for a movie ticket, a streaming service, or a new DVD or Blu-Ray since then. Brain surgery with a backhoe, cut your pineal gland off at the waist. Fuck your entire sector of industry, Tom Cruise.
Fuck your entire sector of industry, Tom Cruise.
You mean conning people to join the cult or his hobby of mediocre acting?
Yes.
'Well how do you expect us the make billions in profit every year?' - google probably
"But you heard of the product!"
Someone should write an article about how interrupting ads actualy negatively affect consumer choices and then popularize it. I am ok even if its just made of shady stats, many will adapt the idea blindly anyways.
Someone should. I'm sure it has never been tried.
Surely companies will ignore decades of psychological studies and own marketing experience for a random article full of made up numbers.
People are more willing to jump on popularized band wagons than you would think.
Let's popularize it! How about advertising?
that is what I would call an implosion
It works for AI ...
The same with podcasts, especially geolocated ads or what they're called. Here in Norway I always get the same fucking ads on every damn podcast, and they are horrible, like getting raped in the ears. At least I learn which companies to avoid..
So much this!
Since I use NewPipe and SmartTube, I don't get YouTube ads, but I do get ads during podcasts and the geolocated ones are by far the worst!
I have learned to hate Designer Outlet Neumünster, Shopify, and Danish paid podcast company Podimo with a passion usually reserved for fascist politicians!
I bet i have heard the same add, even living in Finland. I live close enough to border so i get good mix of Finish, Swedish and Norwegian adds. And every single one of those are way louder than the podcast is.
Y’all are watching ads? If I see an ad, my immediate reaction is to close the tab.
I've held this attitude ever since those Mentos commercials used to interrupt my Much Music in the 90s. These type-A marketing types rarely realized they're just advertising to themselves.
Some sites I'll whitelist, but the vast majority can suck it. I'm blocking it.
If a person comes to my door and rings the bell after reading my sign that says, "don't ring unless emergency"...I enjoy giving them my full vocabulary of curses. People are stupid. A person is smart.
But you know the product and that is what is important for advertisers. Also it's important what happens subconsciously, not so much your first reaction to it.
Personally when I need something and have seen an ad for a product that fits the need, I'll buy it. If I've seen the ad so much that it's seared into my brain, I search for the product and buy the ripoff version of it (when possible), or I DIY it.
Edit: corrected autocorrect
I am against State Farm for this exact reason.
If the insurance firm has a lot of money to throw at constant adds, then odds are good that they aren't paying out premiums for their customers.
Indeed
you just gave them a free ad
blocked from orbit
/not really; merely admonished from uncomfortable chair
No skin off my back lol.
Consumer sentiment is not a factor in the advertising business equation
Except I used to work in distribution for Sears/Best Buy online delivery and I can assure you I noticed what people bought and the ads that were frequent. The more obtrusive ads saw less sales.
Check out !peertube@lemmy.world most videos dont have ads.
I remember when cable had very little ads. Its sttange that we pay so much for cable/internet/premium but companies chasing that dollar keep throwing ads in there.
...the bigger the reason to use an adblocker.
Where do you even see ads ? Use an ad blocker ! Haven't seen ads online for over a decade.
There are many ads on YouTube that are obvious scams. So I just assume that anything being advertised on YT is a scam.
I will not say I support the ads, but it is very interesting to see some of these scam ads that I see that played before videos especially the ones that talk about improving your sex drive. They are just very odd and I wouldn’t say concerning but just odd.
There was a very annoying radio ad for a musli brand when I was a child. I decided then that I would never buy their product ever. I'm 40 now and can proudly say that I still go out of my way to not buy any products from that company and to the best of my knowledge I've never eaten their products.
I get that the idea is to create recognition, but if it's too annoying you won't get a "Ah, I've heard that name I'll go for this one" from me but a "Oh, that's the annoying one, I'll avoid it."
*Sad Willi Pfannenschwarz noises*
oh, no
Amazon prime tv is awful with the forced ad breaks
If your product or service was any good, you wouldn't need ads. 🧐
In the inverse 5 sec content sponsored by for the whole video I may google the company
It's fun that more than a century into a consumer based economy people still think: "ads don't work on me!".
Yeah dude, they do. Only way they don't is if you manage to avoid them altogether.
Revanced is alive and kicking guys.
So's NewPipe and SmartTube, which are the ones I use.
Haven't been able to find a podcast player with sponsorblock, though, so I continue to be assaulted.
The Yaris ads did this to me. I got so pissed off by their "It's a car" commercials that I absolutely despised the product.
Were you in market for buying the car when you saw those adds? If you werent then they did not loose a sale even if you hated the add.
Can you honestly say, that if you were in really need of a car and there would be opportunity to buy a yaris with good price and it would be good fit to your needs at the moment, you would pass it just because some add you saw at some point?
Was it so effective you repeat the name of the product years later in some random discussion on the internet?
I think the adds worked pretty much as intented.
If I had the choice of the Yaris or another car, I would choose the other car. Because driving that car would make me at least low-level angry for the time I had it.
Stockholm syndrome
Yes, I am never buying a Tide product again since it seems they were the only ones to pay Amazon for ads. I was trying to watch a show that I was having difficulty pirating and every damn ad was either for tide or bounty for some damn reason so never buying anything from them again since I had to see like 30 of those ads repeatedly. I usually muted the tv and just browsed my phone but for that first second the ad played I could tell it was for one of them.
Also the more suspicious I get, and thus less likely to buy, the advertised product.
Consumerism! AHHHHH!!!
In my head this read like Queen's "Flash Gordon" song. It made it all the more absurd and better.
I never wanted to wring the necks of anyone more, than to the dumbasses who thought making product jingles would be the key to making people buy. Like the Charmin one.
Adnauseam and Sponsorblock should stop you from seeing most ads on youtube.
People are responding with ad block but as much as I hate them I kinda like being aware of what they are. Anyone who is confused about why our country is where its at go turn off your ad blockers for videos.
Yeah, no. I don't need an advertisement to inform me that consumerism being propped up by imperialism is why everything sucks