@GeofCox this is incredibly cynical and ignores all of the benefits of advertising. Google is free to me. I watch many entertaining things without paying more than partial attention during commercials.
I don't disagree with the points you are making but this seems an intentionally one-sided view.
@GeofCox there’s a famous old quote; “half the money spent on advertising is wasted. The system only works because nobody can work out which half it is.” Thing is, these days with analytics you can tell exactly what works - and it’s way less than half, which is why IAB ad rates have fallen through the floor. The volume we see is desperation by publishers who now need 5-10 times as many cheap ads to make the same revenue.
Yes - I think we are becoming more resistant - fast fashion is discredited for many, for example, secondhand (albeit often disguised under euphemistic fashion terms like retro or vintage) is becoming more trendy.
I also think we're saturated. Most current products and services are changing in tiny increments. The main areas where there are big new consumer movements are in fact renewables - electric cars, solar panels, heat-pumps, etc - but these are not promising for big business as once bought they tend to reduce consumer spending - and in any case they're all made in China in state controlled or influenced companies.
@GeofCox
Trying to avoid advertisings wherever possible, my reaction on some randon clleagues „it’s like in this famous advert..“ „I don‘t know it“
@GeofCox I remember during the early covid lockdowns, there was a huge lack of advertisements in my city. Most public panels were used for public service messages, very uniform and calming actually.
@GeofCox No Logo by Naomi Klein deals with this issue (and labour practices)
@GeofCox this is incredibly cynical and ignores all of the benefits of advertising. Google is free to me. I watch many entertaining things without paying more than partial attention during commercials.
I don't disagree with the points you are making but this seems an intentionally one-sided view.
@gregwardo
nope it’s not free.
at times when TV was still the ultimate mass advertisement medium i could tell you exactly who owns a TV and uses it a lot by looking into the bathroom and fridge.
TV users have a lot of „brands“ (that stuff invented to secure high quality products now used to create the illusion that products are high quality without being true) in their fridge, they have 5 bottles of shampoo and other cosmetics in the bathroom despite you can only use one of them…
@gregwardo
so the „ad financed“ free services are very much paid for: in the supermarket by buying stuff that has been put into your head as high quality product you desperately need while instead of making real quality they just „build a brand“ and then put cheap logo stickers on products with the absolute minimum quality they can get away with.
if in doubt they even actively engineer the products to break in a defined time so you buy new stuff.
this is how consumers pay free stuff
@GeofCox
"They even actively engineer the products to break" - or to force you to keep buying expensive replacement parts - like US razors or computer printers.
@GeofCox
or BMW „inventing“ special screws that only their licensed superexpensive workshops have tools for…
if the industry would spend half as much energy on making real great innovative products as they spend on such tricks and marketing that creates the illusion that their products are great and innovative everyone would be much better off
But Google is not free to you. It is collecting information about you and selling that to advertisers - and you pay Google for that - albeit indirectly - when you buy the advertised products or services.
@GeofCox I actually use duckduckgo but yeah
@GeofCox Advertising ruins everything.
