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Poll: Does advertising affect you ?

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In a society where conspicuous consumption prevails I often wonder if advertising influences the level of my wants. I can hardly recollect buying something just because of an ad on tv- but I cannot completely negate the idea the advertising effects me. I tend to stick with brands that are familiar to me, but these are brands that I decided to use because perhaps subconciously their advertising influenced me. This is a very iffy question, but in some degree advertising influences each one of us somehow when we buy something merely for wants, rather than for needs.
 
I always buy no-name stuff because it's cheaper. Judging by what I have bought in the last ten years, advertising has no effect on me whatsoever. I guess I'm not as mentally weak as some others on this forum. 😉
 
No matter how impervious you think you are, youre not. Its a well documented psychological fact. Advertisers would not be spending money on it if it didnt work. This is not my opinion, its a fact.

Of course it will go in one ear, and out another, because its near impossible for people to change an opinion they already hold. Its as if everyone has this 20 foot stone wall surrounding their opinions. And no one wants to be thought of as advertiser's sheep. Before you even finish reading the above sentence, you will already undoubtedly come up with a counter argument to convince yourself that the above is not so, because youre special in some way.




<< I tend to stick with brands that are familiar to me, but these are brands that I decided to use because perhaps subconciously their advertising influenced me. >>



Thats exactly it. They cant aim directly for the subconscious, cause then the commercial would make no sense. But typically, people buy the most familiar thing. After being bombarded by tide, when you get to the supermarket, even though youre pretty much sure tide is no better than the other detergents, you buy it from familiarity.

None of you are special. But typically, people dont know this, and seem to think for some reason that theyre that special rose in the garden that nothing that applies to the common person applies to then. Every snowflake is different, but theyre all made from snow.

That means every single one of you! Psychology is a b*tch isnt it? Wish I hadnt learned half the stuff I did.
 
I dont think ads work, for the most part, and I think its dumb that some of you are so convinced it does work enough to call them a fool.

Now let's say I like Oreos, because they taste good. Not because of the AD, but Id buy them because they taste good.
If I dont like Oreos and I see a AD on TV about Oreos, and I see that AD even 20 times, I'm STILL not going to buy Oreos.

Tropicana Orange Juice is advertised on TV, and not once have I seen the "Ross Swiss" brand advertised, but I buy Ross Swiss, you know why? Because it tastes better. Ads do NOT influence my likes and dislikes.
100 Ad's of Oreos just isnt going to make me like the way they taste any better.

The only way I believe they do work, and I'm almost certain the people who say that it doesnt work on them will agree with me here, is when advertisers introduce a new product into the market. I would probably not know about it otherwise, and if I like the product I see I just may go out and buy it.

How many people go out and buy a 30k car because they saw it on a ad? I find it hard to believe that such a large purchase would be made so arbitrarly based on ad.

And back to smaller items, like food. This goes back to my Oreo example. If you hate McDonalds food, and you see their AD, are you going to go there? You may recognize their name through the ADs they put out, but is that going to influence your going there to buy the food you hate? I sure hope not! If you dont like a product, or you like a product, I dont see how AD's would effect it.

Maybe in developing your orginal preferences they can play a part in, but when it gets down to it, your own personal opinions (such as taste in certains foods that are advertised) are created by your own self.
 
Of course it does, why else would they do it.
If you go into a stor to buy, say, some ketchup knowing nothing about what all the different brands of ketchup are like, and you had seen adverts for one brand in particular.
Even if you weren't particularly impressed with the ads you would likely buy that brand just because it is familiar to you.

It can work the other way though. I have vowed never to again enter a GAP store after those stupid stupid adverts they have. :disgust:
 
yes,

without advertising I wouldn't have heard of many of the products I buy. I don't necessarily listen to their gimmicks but I see products and sometimes decide to investigate farther, so yes it affects me, I don't buy something just because of a commerical but it might make me decide to find out if I should buy it.
 


I can't believe this is an actual question? What's even more stunning is that people actually put no. Advertising has an effect one way or another on everybody who is actually reading this....
 
Nope, not really. Word of mouth, personal experience and varied product reviews influence me far more.
 
Pull ads (ie: banner ads) that say "here's the product, here's the price" I will take a look into. Crucial's done a good job at that. Pricewatch is an excellent example of that.

Ambiguous ads that don't give me any info don't affect me at all

Push ads (popups, telemarketing) turn me off. I won't buy any X-10 products because of that. I tend to have the mind set of "if they have to push, it's not worth buying"
 


<< No matter how impervious you think you are, youre not. Its a well documented psychological fact. Advertisers would not be spending money on it if it didnt work. This is not my opinion, its a fact. Of course it will go in one ear, and out another, because its near impossible for people to change an opinion they already hold. Its as if everyone has this 20 foot stone wall surrounding their opinions. And no one wants to be thought of as advertiser's sheep. Before you even finish reading the above sentence, you will already undoubtedly come up with a counter argument to convince yourself that the above is not so, because youre special in some way.

<< I tend to stick with brands that are familiar to me, but these are brands that I decided to use because perhaps subconciously their advertising influenced me. >>

Thats exactly it. They cant aim directly for the subconscious, cause then the commercial would make no sense. But typically, people buy the most familiar thing. After being bombarded by tide, when you get to the supermarket, even though youre pretty much sure tide is no better than the other detergents, you buy it from familiarity. None of you are special. But typically, people dont know this, and seem to think for some reason that theyre that special rose in the garden that nothing that applies to the common person applies to then. Every snowflake is different, but theyre all made from snow. That means every single one of you! Psychology is a b*tch isnt it? Wish I hadnt learned half the stuff I did. >>



Thank you. This states so well what I wanted to say but could not. It was, in fact, a trick question -- the only answer is 'yes'. In fact, this is why the advertising works so well, because we all think we're special and above such bamboozlement, at least to some degree because of your ego.
 


<< you should make a choics that says advertising negivitly affects you. because personally i dont by anything that someone is trying to push on me. i buy what i want and thats it. >>




how do you know what you want if you have never seen it advertised? how do you even know it exists???
 


<< Very rarely. So no.

nik >>

What kind of logic is that? I murder people very rarely, so I am not a murderer.

Face it, we're all affected to some degree.

I will add though that people who have taken marketing classes and have seen first-hand all of the shadiness, all the smoke and mirrors, all the untruth and deception that goes into advertising tend to be more aware of what the true motive behind most advertising is.

Marketing was the worst class I took in school. Not because it was boring or I didn't like the teacher, but that the subject matter was so depressing... it was learning how to deceive people into finding value in your product for fun and profit.

l2c
 

I guess I understood the question all wrong. Yes of course it does affect me in that way that they bring a new product in my attention. I thought the question was do I buy products because of the advertising.
 
In the United States, you have to be affected. If you aren't, then you are very poor and don't have access to the media, which is false for everyone here. In a capitalistic society, it is impossible not to be affected.
 
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