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[-] blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 month ago

If you don't have money for either product then you are not their target demographic, and thus, you being inconvenienced or delayed does not concern them in the slightest.

Their goal is to get money from the people who have money. How they affect people with no money is not a factor in their decisions, since no money will be acquired from them regardless.

[-] TheFogan@programming.dev 11 points 1 month ago

Why do you think some of the most advertised things are... predatory loans and gambling.

Honestly for me the worse of it is, basically on linkedin and similar, people pretending to be recruiters, opening with a fake job posting and asking for your resume, then to follow it up with "Hey you know I don't think this resume is going to get by, can I put you in contact with my resume company, they will sharpen up your resume for $300. Umm... so yeah, don't know if you guessed this, but I have no clue when my next paycheck is coming in, this isn't the time to ask me to drop a large amount of money on something that may not do anything.

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

ugh yeah. the gambling. I mean that one is straight out like. play our game and you will make millions guaranteed. I mean with that voice saying the bank account balance thing. this should be crazy illegal. Im a big victimless crimes person but I have to say I would like advertising for adult things to be limited to adult venues. I don't think they should allow gambling sites to even be listed in app stores or be indexed by search engines but like if your at a bar or strip club they could have a poster with a QR code.

[-] BremboTheFourth@piefed.ca 1 points 1 month ago

"Victimless crime" has always been kind of a grey term anyway. There are two sides to the types of things that refers to.

Doing drugs? Being a prostitute? Gambling your money away? Victimless crimes.

Manufacturing drugs? Being a pimp? Running a casino? I'm not so sure.

[-] HubertManne@piefed.social 0 points 1 month ago

vicitmless crimes are about the individual. So yeah someone prostituting themselves and someone taking them up on it no prob. Running a brothel or being a pimp is sorta different. All the same Im fine with bussinesses that support the same as long as highly regulated. So at the individual level I want light regulation mainly for safety but going up to business I want a lot of regulation not only for safety on all levels but to prevent abuse and it should be taxed more than regular businesses.

[-] Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 1 points 1 month ago

Here in Australia, if two sex workers move in together and practice out of their homes, that's legally a brothel and they're criminals. And there are lots of legitimate reasons to do that. Safety in numbers, the fact that a fellow sex worker isn't going to judge you, three-ways. But it's illegal. And ridiculous laws like that are why a lot of sex workers in this country want full decrim.

[-] CovfefeKills@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Ads these days are run like internet scams they are there to trick the most vulnerable.

[-] InvalidName2@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago

They aren't worried in the literal you, in one sense.

Advertising is a temporal numbers game. Any one random single individual (or household) at any given time is insignificant. You are a speck of dust in the wind.

On the flip side, advertising is (or can be) a long game. At the moment you may be too young, too poor, too healthy, too whatever for their ads to be relevant. However, if they advertise enough and you see enough of these ads, it can make an impression (even if subliminal). And down the line when you're old enough to need dick pills and making just enough to afford them, you're now aware that dick pills exist and suddenly now that you're in the market for dick pills your reptilian brain will remember that jingle "Like a rock" and how Dicken's dick pills are the key to feeling 18 again. Suddenly you're sucking down Dicken's pills like they're candy.

[-] potatoguy@mbin.potato-guy.space 3 points 1 month ago

It's not about buying, it's about staying in your head, even if you don't remember it explicitly.

This kinda boring, menial, repetitive propaganda doesn't try to make you buy something straight away, it's to make you numb to it, to know it, to receive it without thinking, so then it tries to affect you. It tries to turn nothing into anything resembling truth, it turns advertisement and news, into an endless cycle of boring things that get hammered by the "a lie told 1000 times turns into truth" line.

It doesn't affect you when you're watching it, it affects you when you see or do anything relating to it.

When you need to buy new tires, you know what to buy, you don't buy based on technical sheets, you buy it knowing it, even not explicitly.

(A take from Adorno and Horkheimers "Dialectic of Enlightenment", the part where they talk about the media, culture, art, etc)

[-] Bahnd@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Exactly this, its the main reason people around this corner of the internet push ad-blocking software so much. Its a slow toxin that warps your subjective processing.

Everyone is vulnerable to it, those that claim otherwise are deluded, and the only way to be free of it is to cut advertisment from your life in as many places as possible.

[-] Strider@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

May I introduce you to neurodiversity.

You say everyone is vulnerable to it, I'd like to change your view into: everyone is affected by it.

I am not saying I am deluded or immune but it affects me in quite opposite ways. You see, autists are known to be quite stubborn (in general or places). So there's this behavior that the more you push the more distance and negativity you'll receive.

That's how eg. Radio ads affect me. I can hardly endure listening to it (even passively) but the more I hear the repetition of one ad the more I will actively work against that product or company.

(there's also research into this counter forceyit just doesn't work and erode that way)

[-] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 1 points 1 month ago

And to add to that, it worsens mental health issues - at least for me it does. The subconscious "you are not good enough" doesn't do anything good for anyone.

I do not do ad-supported, ever - they are aggravating, i start grinding my teeth and would rather listen to a construction site than to ads.

[-] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 1 points 1 month ago

Futurama and the ads broadcast into your dreams.

[-] eezeebee@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

On the other hand, you never see ads for beans and yet you can't stop thinking about them.

[-] D_C@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

Rubbish, I can stop thinking about beans any time I want.
...
...
Mmmmmmm, beans on toast with a bit of cheese. DAMNIT!

[-] knatschus@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago

Are you sure the Bud Spencer and Terrace Hill movies haven't been a ad campaign by big Beans?

[-] Goretantath@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

People keep saying that ads are to get the brand into my head, but they dont realise thats a bad thing for the company. I specificly buy brands i DONT see ads for because i believe if they arent spending money on ads but are still being sold in storesz they must be spending that money on bettering the product instead.

[-] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Sadly, you're not the norm. Getting the brand into peoples' heads actually works in most cases, which is why they keep doing it.

[-] fubbernuckin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It's insane to me how little thought people put into things in their daily lives, because you're right. So many people see a thing and they're like "Oh, I see the thing. I'll do the thing. Coke flavored mouthwash on my TV? Yeah, let's do coke flavored mouthwash." Literally just the first unfiltered, uncritical reaction they feel.

I had someone the other day tell me they didn't want to use Firefox because when they did it gave them a bunch of security issues. When I asked what they meant it turned out the security issues in question were the browser asking them if they wanted to let different websites know their location, have access to webcam, etc. "Well I just don't like that it does that"

[-] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

I don't want to stray into XKCD territory, but it does seem like people in general tend to be less...conscientious about such things than I. However, I'm oblivious about plenty of things myself that others are more aware of, so I guess it's just how different priorities work.

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[-] CannedYeet@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Yes, this has been proven experimentally.

[-] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago

seems strange to me that this (in the attached image) isn't the normal way people think

[-] kepix@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

the advertisement doesnt suppose to be some out of reach thing. more than likely targeted. also if you cant block ads or use modded apps you might be on apple, which means you probably will buy it.

[-] SparkyBauer44@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

This is exactly how I feel when a monthly bill goes up as result of missed payment, I missed because I'm laid off and broke. What makes them think turning up the heat will result in me suddenly having money appear?

[-] definitely_AI@feddit.online 1 points 1 month ago

While we're clearing out the air, if I buy your shitty product, why do I still need to see your fucking ads?

[-] Delphia@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Or worse.

Theres a product I need, never seen an ad for it. Go online, buy it. Thats all my ads are for the next 3 months like I'm some sort of fucking collector now.

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I find it wild that people are still under the impression that advertising doesn't work. I get it, you block ads, you aggressively ignore them, you feel like they never influence you. Same here. But they do influence us. A little bit here and there. Then consider that most people are way more suggestible than we are. If ads didn't work, they would've never been a thing.

You might think you cannot afford to buy most things advertised, but the numbers don't lie. They'll get you eventually. Even if it's just $3. Not having money never really stopped people from spending it anyhow.

[-] SippyCup@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

It's unlikely that you're exceptional in your resistance to advertising.

It's just that 95% of all advertising fails to hit its intended target.

[-] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

You might think you cannot afford to buy most things advertised, but the numbers don’t lie. They’ll get you eventually. Even if it’s just $3.

Do you really believe that? $3 isn't going to get me the things I see ads for that I'd actually be tempted by. As to things $3 or below, I'm never shopping at the craft store that hates gay people. I'm never buying from the top fast food places either. These are things I already made decisions on for moral reasons and I've never swayed on in all my years, so why on Earth would an ad make a difference?

I don't think advertisers (or those that think any old ad is bound to be effective) consider that there are some of us who make decisions based on our own criteria. I recognize that I'm not like most people, but to say that such ads are still going to "get [me] eventually" is nonsense.

Not having money never really stopped people from spending it anyhow.

Maybe for some, but that's again not something that applies to everyone. I don't even have a credit card. I've had nearly 20 years of adulthood in which to get one, have bought/leased cars and rented apartments without a problem (despite no card, paying off student loans means my credit score is pretty good), and I prefer the security of only spending money I've already got. Advertisers can have fun trying to squeeze ~~blood~~ money from a stone.

[-] MrFinnbean@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I love how many unique people who are immune to adds here are.

You are being effected by adds, you will do purchace decision effected by add campaing. You have done purchace decision effected by add campaign.

You can have moral standing and boycot companies. You can decite you dont use that one brand, but as long as you are consumer, your buying habits will always be slightly effected by adds.

[-] Krudler@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

The fact that McDonald's exists is proof that advertising works.

[-] Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 month ago

Last time I went to cDonald's it tasted fine and was rather enjoyable. But I felt queasy the following day.

[-] YetAnotherNerd@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 month ago

Because you saved that money so that you could buy their product!

[-] Allero@lemmy.today 1 points 1 month ago

Because you still have to be inconvenienced for not paying the premium.

[-] squaresinger@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

That's the neat thing, they don't.

Marketing looks like it is there to make you buy products, but it's a well-known fact that this doesn't work, and online ads specifically allow performance measurements, and they show that it's not worth the money.

So what are ads actually there for then?

First, remember that the thing that marketing departments are best at is marketing their own importance to company management. They are really good at convincing their companies that if they stop marketing, everything will collapse. So in this way, marketing is there to finance the marketing department, and everyone's too scared to stop marketing, because if they do they will be seen as the biggest idiots ever.

Second, marketing is there to provide a small revenue stream to the platform where you see the ads, but more importantly to punish you for not paying premium. Youtube makes you watch a shitton of ads, not because they care about whether you buy anything from the ads, but to punish you for not paying premium and to get you to do so. A premium customer brings in orders of magnitude more money than an ad-only customer.

[-] WindyRebel@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

They are really good at convincing their companies that if they stop marketing, everything will collapse.

I hate that I’m going to defend marketing here, but if they do stop marketing then things will collapse (for many businesses). Do I like marketing, personally? No. That’s why I got out of marketing and am becoming an elementary school teacher to help others rather than spit propaganda but I digress…

Marketing isn’t always about generating a sale. Many times its reach and brand recall. We’re a global and digital economy now, so reach is massively important for survival. Stopping marketing limits who is exposed to your brand and the repetition makes your company synonymous with a product.

Why do we call tissues Kleenex? Why do we call cotton swabs a Qtip? Why do we call small sticky notepads Post-Its? Why do we call searching “Googling”? Why do we gravitate toward those brands even when cheaper and more generic options exist that are perfectly on par?

Making those brands the prime thing you think of when you use a specific thing so that no one thinks of using something else even when they have money. You want people to mention your product or think about it even if they aren’t buying it.

You’re drowning out the potential of your competition. That’s marketing, and if you stop then your competitor takes over or a small business won’t grow.

[-] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

If marketing majors could read, they'd be very upset.

[-] BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Idiots live in debt by throwing money on bullshit all the time

[-] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Nobody cares if you have money or not. It's about reaching a lot of users and finding one's that are willing to buy

[-] Kushan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I appreciate the sentiment because I also hate ads, but just because you're not spending your disposable income on premium doesn't mean you couldn't theoretically spend it on something else.

[-] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 1 month ago

if its on a browser, you can just block it with adblockers.

[-] FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago

Because you might have money someday

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this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

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