::scr more on text ads

[David Cantrell]

On Fri, Nov 16, 2001 at 02:57:24PM +0000, Simon Batistoni wrote:
> On 16/11/01 06:29 -0800, matt jones wrote:
> > People put up with intrusive advertising on TV (IMHO) because it gives
> > them a chance to get up and make a NCOT. Well, that's why I put up with
> > it, anyway. It's just sad that the marketing world didn't seem to be able
> > to get the "web" ne "tv" thing for so long. 
> 
> I often wonder how effective TV ads are.

<paraphrase> we know that we're wasting half of our advertising budget.
We don't know which half</paraphrase>

> are quite amusing the first few times you see them (Reebok's "Lose
> the Belly" and "Escape the Sofa" ones pop into my head, for
> example), but they don't make me go buy the product. I own no Reebok
> kit whatsoever, and don't want any.

They're not advertising at you.  You just happen to watch one program which
their customers watch.  Mind you, I'm not at all qualified to talk about
adverts cos I watch so little telly that I can't name a single ad that's now
on.  The last thing I bought that I know was influenced by advertising was
a Procul Harum album, cos an Apple ad reminded me of just how great their
music was :-)

> Now, there has to be a balance. Companies have to make money, or
> there's no point doing it. But what irks me beyond belief is the way
> that so many industries are complacently trying to defend existing
> ways of doing things to the detriment of the end consumer (adverts
> that my video recorder *forces me to watch*? Fuck off...)

You mean adverts that remind you that you might like to get up and make a
NCOT instead of continuing to sit on your arse in front of the haunted
fishtank.  The advertisers only have your best interests in mind. <cough>

-- 
David Cantrell | david@cantrell.org.uk | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed
 (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless
 series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary"  -- H. L. Mencken