Does Advertising work on you?

[OverlordSteve]

I was at a family gathering today, talking to my Uncle about the Internet, and he said the job everyone in his company wants has to do with Internet advertising, because that type does the best.

I was confused by this, Internet Ads have always been a big thorn in my ass, and in my fellow users, from what I had gathered. Why would it bring in the most revenue. It got me to thinking, and I realised, with shock, that it DOES work on my. I checked out Reset Generation when it was advertised here on The Escapist, started playing Kingdom of Loathing after seeing it in an article in the site's latest issue, [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_161/5112-Stumbling-Into-the-Kingdom-of-Loathing] and gave Urban Rivals a look after seeing an ad on Newgrounds.com. I've never seen something in a TV ad and wanted it, was persuaded into seeing movies by about 10% of their trailers, and buy Videogames on the reccommendations of friends, or after playing them myself, but these simple banners convince me to take a look. It's amazing, I thought I was above this stuff.

Am I the only once? Does this stuff work on you too without your realisation?

 

[ReepNeep]

Of course it works on me. It works on everyone else too, whether they think so or not. At the very least it creates 'mindshare' and 'brand name recognition'.

However, whenever an ad makes a claim about a product, I just happen to be clever (cynical?) enough to think about how they are twisting the truth so that the statement isn't technically a lie.

Remember kids, there are three kinds of falsehoods: lies, damn lies, and statistics.

 

[Mnemophage]

Not really. I make my purchase decisions based on what I need. Or occasionally, what I want. If an ad alerts me to something I may want to buy, I generally research and compare prices before I rush out and fling my bank card about. I shop most often at second-hand or mom-and-pop stores; whether consciously or not, I avoid big chains, unless they offer the best price, or something else I can only get there. I practically never use my credit card, and pay it off afterward immediately - I HATE being in debt.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Not really. I make my purchase decisions based on what I need. Or occasionally, what I want. If an ad alerts me to something I may want to buy, I generally research and compare prices before I rush out and fling my bank card about. I shop most often at second-hand or mom-and-pop stores; whether consciously or not, I avoid big chains, unless they offer the best price, or something else I can only get there. I practically never use my credit card, and pay it off afterward immediately - I HATE being in debt.

Then it's working on you just fine. Trust me, I study advertising in my communications class, they aren't trying to "trick" you, just to get that "I've heard of this" thought when you see a particular product.

 

[Larenxis]

Doesn't work on me in terms of me buying the product, but it does work for me in terms of possibly telling someone else about it. Very unlikely though. When it comes to the ads here on The Escapist, I never click on something with unreasonable cleavage, which happens to be nearly everything.

 

[Saskwach]

Doesn't work on me in terms of me buying the product, but it does work for me in terms of possibly telling someone else about it. Very unlikely though. When it comes to the ads here on The Escapist, I never click on something with unreasonable cleavage, which happens to be nearly everything.

Oh dear god the Conan ads. Seriously, I felt icky whenever those very particular camera angles came up in the ad bar.

 

[the monopoly guy]

Doesn't work on me in terms of me buying the product, but it does work for me in terms of possibly telling someone else about it. Very unlikely though. When it comes to the ads here on The Escapist, I never click on something with unreasonable cleavage, which happens to be nearly everything.

Oh dear god the Conan ads. Seriously, I felt icky whenever those very particular camera angles came up in the ad bar.

They were just selling it on sex and that's it, they just mentioned that it looked good, at the same time showing her cleavage and unrealistic armor.

Anyway, I like to think no, no it does not and truth be told it doesn't anymore. But when your a kid and you want to fit in, hell yes it does and nobody here can deny that, you can't say that you saw some toy commercial at some point and never went "cooool!".

 

[Larenxis]

Oh dear god the Conan ads. Seriously, I felt icky whenever those very particular camera angles came up in the ad bar.

Almost makes you long for the epileptic dinosaur, eh?

EDIT:

But when your a kid and you want to fit in, hell yes it does and nobody here can deny that, you can't say that you saw some toy commercial at some point and never went "cooool!".

Not me, I didn't buy shit when I was little. I think I bought those little caramel cubes, and I don't think those were advertised.
Wait, were they? I mean the must've at some time...

 

[sneakypenguin]

Heck yes advertising works on me. Have you seen those shamwow commercials? amazing it can hold 20 times its weight in water. I was sold on the spot have the number written down somewhere. Of course i wasn't stupid enough to buy but still I was impressed Ha

 

[Mnemophage]

Not really. I make my purchase decisions based on what I need. Or occasionally, what I want. If an ad alerts me to something I may want to buy, I generally research and compare prices before I rush out and fling my bank card about. I shop most often at second-hand or mom-and-pop stores; whether consciously or not, I avoid big chains, unless they offer the best price, or something else I can only get there. I practically never use my credit card, and pay it off afterward immediately - I HATE being in debt.

Then it's working on you just fine. Trust me, I study advertising in my communications class, they aren't trying to "trick" you, just to get that "I've heard of this" thought when you see a particular product.

I'm not so sure. I'll use my mp3 player as an example: I have a Phillips GoGear, which I got for very little money and didn't even know existed until I figured I wanted an mp3 player. I take a savage kind of pleasure knowing that my friend's iPod has busted twice in its shorter lifespan.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

Advertising works on everyone-- even people that don't like to admit it.

 

[milskidasith]

Some ad's will get me to check things out, but only on sites I trust when they dominate the site. For example, Reset generation was pretty good, but I only checked it out because it was plastered EVERYWHERE on The Escapist, and I gave TE the benefit of the doubt and assumed they wouldn't be bought out with full page ad's for a crap game.

 

[meatloaf231]

I would probably never buy something just because it looked good in an ad, but the ad may spark my interest enough to do research.

 

[pilot inspektor]

I have been tricked into some of those casino pop-ups that say "do you not want to play at our casino?" and i hit cancel/no only to have myself taken to their homepage, but thats only because i am not paying attention. The only banner ad i was actually interested in as far as i can remember was one for "combat arms" a free MMOFPS reminiscent of WarRock and SoldierFront, but still i only clicked that becuase i saw it was made by Nexon, the company that made my favorite MMORPG MapleStory (which no longer works on my computer due to game-guard being shit). The game is adequate and i guess that advertising did "work" on me.

 

[Dommyboy]

Ads hardly effect me at all. Reviews are what I depend on.

 

[Daymo]

Viral advertising works good on me. My curiosity makes me find out what the thing is for. Other advertising works as well, like i'll tell my friend about a product i saw advertised if they need something like it, just not as good as viral advertising.

 

[t0mme]

I Adblock them all. So no, it does not work on me.

 

[The Wooster]

Anyone who thinks advertising doesn't work on them has bought into the advertising designed for people who think advertising doesn't work on them. It's funny in a peverse kind of way.

Also the rest of the Halo 3 launch blew but the documentary about the battle replica model thing was incredibly well done.

 

[zirnitra]

Not at all....MUST PLAY RESET GENERATION

 

[Booze Zombie]

If something looks good, I'll give it a click. But most adverts just aren't very good, so I don't clcik that many.