I’ve been informed that adblock plus sort of sucks now. If you’re looking for one, go for UBlock Origin.

  • credit crazy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Honestly I never understood why ads try so hard to be annoying like I just don’t see how that is more profitable than making a ad that simply makes your product look good somehow they must be working as they are so prominent but I still just don’t get it

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      The bane of marketing.

      Somewhere, some metric told them that they don’t need to make good ads that explain the product. They only need to be as annoying as possible to garner attention, and put their branding on the end to be remembered.

      Marketing is about hacking your brain in order to sell you products you do not need. It is horrible and should be banned entirely.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        “Marketing” is just a euphemism for “propaganda” and is just as unethical (if not even more so).

        • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 year ago

          Yes, it is propaganda, and to build on the comment you’re replying to, one of the tactics they use instead of explaining their product is simply repetitiveness.

          If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. -Joseph Goebbels

          Simply repeat your ad often enough in front of enough people, and an amount of those people will stop questioning the ad and take it as gospel.

      • mycatiskai@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        A diamond store in Canada has horrible ads with a man screaming in them. (all Canadians know who I am talking about already) I turn their ads off or switch radio stations when I hear them. If I was going to buy diamond jewellery I would go out of my way to buy from the store that is the furthest away from any of there stores even if it cost more. I would buy any mineral other than diamonds though.

        • can
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          1 year ago

          I guess I’m the rare lucky canadian who has no idea what you’re talking about.

          • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Neither do I. I don’t have cable and the only time I listen to the radio is when my alarm goes off in the morning (and that’s set to CBC.)

          • Kecessa
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            1 year ago

            That makes two of us but I only listen to Radio-Canada radio as a source of entertainment that isn’t on my computer with ads blocked 🤷

        • WashedOver@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          I haven’t listened to local radio in years but you have just unlocked that yell from my memory.

          I guess it’s good in the sense as they have been able to cut through the mass volume of media we are flooded with daily.

        • OkeyDokey@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          I’m sad to say that those advertisements worked on me. When a young man needs to buy an engagement ring, name recognition, albeit in a negative light, got me to spend money with them. I just went to the first place that popped in my head.

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There’s a fundamental problem within the marketing industry, that almost nothing that’s being sold is something you even remotely need. Economics says that consumers are rational. If that’s the case we would almost never buy anything. Marketing exists at odds with that principle.

      If you won’t buy it unless you need it, then they have to create need with their marketing.

      If they’re selling you a pen, any pen will write, but this pen will change the way you write! It’s life changing! You need this pen, it’ll be the last pen you ever buy!

      If they can’t convince you to need it, you won’t buy it.

      There’s another problem, and that’s that we, collectively, are losing our attention spans. The constant access to new media means we never have to spend long on anything, something new is always at our fingertips, and we, collectively, aren’t really that patient anymore.

      Before you comment on this with some anecdote about how you’ve only gotten more focused, actually. That’s missing the point, in general we’re getting worse, not better.

      So now ads can’t take the time to tell you how great this pen is, really, even if it will change your life, they only have about 5 seconds before you’ve forgotten about it forever. So they have to be louder, more aggressive, and more pervasive. In whatever breed of tiktok style content you choose, you’ll stumble across videos that are blatant ads for a product that make no mention of it. Ads disguised as content, in the modern format. “Hi guys so I just got this pen and it’s l1t3rally life changing” over the top of a cool looking pen writing smoothly.

      Will it work on you? Probably not, advertising gains take place in tenths of percentage points. You’re a smart consumer and never fall for such blatant ads, and for you they have a tactic too. Every single piece of content you consume is just full of ads, subtly conditioning you towards every product on the planet. Because if they don’t, you’ll keep your old shit that still works and never buy anything.

      • CyberDine@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I now want to buy this pen about which you speak.

        You also missed a golden meta opportunity to shill out your post to BIC®

        • Wogi@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’m a big fan of Pilot G2s, though I find the finer ones don’t last through an entire cartridge.

          I specifically used pens because how pointless a good pen is, when the 5 dollar box of 60 Bic Round Stick Ms is perfectly acceptable and it’s literally the only pen most people will use every day if they use one that frequently.

          A great pen is only a little better than a good one, and bad pens are available at every price.

    • Jagermo@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Because, in the golden days of ads, your metrics were bullshit. You had a print ad and someone said that they sold this many issues and, because of the papers totally not biased market research the told you that for every paper sold, x more people saw your ad. Same with TV and Radio, most numbers around viewers or listeners are basically made up with some fancy statistics.

      With the Internet, suddenly you had hard data - your ad has been requested x times. But, that data was always below the fancy print/tv/radio numbers, so the companies had to either push more or reduce prices. That’s how they designed more and more intrusive ads like the ones with the shitty hidden close icon. The longer you need to close it, the longer is the “ad viewed” metric. The more you click on fake X buttons, the higher is the click rate or click through rate. Ad metrics have always been a scam and no one wants to change it.

      • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Of course it is also possible to get click through rare and even track add-to-carts and purchases… So you would think that would drive more compelling ads. But then the ad companies charge per click so naturally they want to encourage clicking in any way possible.

      • Rinox@feddit.it
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        1 year ago

        That being said, you now know that diamond store. How many other diamond stores do you remember off the top of your head?

        Thing is, chances are that now you’ll check them out before selling or buying diamonds, and if they are worth it enough, you’ll go there. And if not you, most other people.

        It’s sad really, but it does work to some extent.

    • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      It’s going to depend on age as well

      Zoomers for instance will see an ad to download something and they’d download it. Millennials won’t click ads at all but if they see a software ad then they will assume it’s a scam and avoid that software

      So if you are making an ad you want to focus on the Zoomer demographic

      As far as annoying, look at the type of YouTubers that Zoomers like. They like annoying things

      • Daqu@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Seriously? Those kids download software from ads? What happened to the school of “don’t click the wrong button on this warez site”?

        • nora@slrpnk.net
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          1 year ago

          Uhhh. I’m gen z and everyone I know knows not to download software from ads.

    • killeronthecorner@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      They work enough, and enough is a surprisingly small amount. I imagine most click through rates are sub 1%, but with the right ratio to impressions, that can be a huge uplift to your sign ups / purchases / whatever