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Why Are TV Adverts Getting So Stupid?

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ToughDiamond
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07 Dec 2023, 10:08 am

MaxE wrote:
I could go on about Apple ads for a long time. One annoying thing about them is that the people in the ads are shown as hipsters, which I take to mean that they think most people see themselves as hipsters, which is discouraging if true, considering how much product they seem to move with those ads.

I'd love to know whether those stupid ads work or not. As a lover of content over presentation, I find it hard to imagine how the public can be so gullible, but then I find it hard to imagine how anybody's mind can sustainably work differently to mine. I've sometimes wondered what would happen to the advertising world if critical thinking was taught far more extensively in schools than it currently is.

I see Apple is doing disturbingly well in the US, but (to my relief) not quite so well in the UK, where there's even some evidence that it's losing steam. Is it just because Americans are generally richer, or what?

There's supposed to be this "Apple environment" out there that locks users into more and more Apple stuff. Rather than being based on dirty tricks that punish the user for disloyalty, it seems to be the existence of seamless compatibility between products, and the fact that you can get them repaired easily (always assuming you've got the money), i.e. the stuff works well, though I guess advertising plays its part.



MaxE
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07 Dec 2023, 1:00 pm

I have a theory as to the connection between affluence and conformism, and the mentality in the US began after WWII when Europe was struggling to recover from devastation while the US economy was booming. If your neighbor has an iPhone or a MacBook Pro, then you have to have one too. Nobody will admit to buying a mobile or laptop based on budgetary considerations, even if their finances are a bit stretched.


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ToughDiamond
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07 Dec 2023, 8:16 pm

MaxE wrote:
I have a theory as to the connection between affluence and conformism, and the mentality in the US began after WWII when Europe was struggling to recover from devastation while the US economy was booming. If your neighbor has an iPhone or a MacBook Pro, then you have to have one too. Nobody will admit to buying a mobile or laptop based on budgetary considerations, even if their finances are a bit stretched.

Something in that, I think. I've heard of "conspicuous consumption" where affluent people show off their wealth so that the less affluent will look up to them and their affluent peers will treat them as equals. It was hard for me to imagine that could be, because I've never made any bones about the limits of my wealth. My family, particularly the males, just felt that wasting money was simply stupid. Eventually I got it through my head that for somebody with money to burn, wasting it does them no appreciable harm, and they can afford to be slaves to the ad-men. As for the ethics of conspicuous consumption and looking up to the wealthy, I'm on the side of the poverty-stricken kid who scratches the rich man's Rolls Royce.



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07 Dec 2023, 9:17 pm

Scratching cars is wrong, be it a beat up old rust heap or a luxury new car. If it was an accident then one has an excuse but one still needs to try and put it right. But if it was done on purpose no one has an excuse!

Most new cars today in the UK are leased as big companies offer bigger discounts to keep people leasing rather than buying, so few people buy. Some makes one can't even buy a new car outright as they only offer lease agreements for a typical period of three or five years and then one gets the choice to buy at the end or lease another new car instead. The downside to this is that those who have no interest to buy as long term leasing is seen as cheaper, have no intention to maintain the vehicles, and the leasing companies do not want the additional bills so they also have no want to maintain the vehicles, so when many of these ex-lease cars come onto the secondhand market they can be in such bad mechanical condition that they fail MOT's etc when they are not that old! Many were found to be so low on oil it was a miriacle their engines had not ceased!


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07 Dec 2023, 9:20 pm

They are catering to the lowest common denominator. Smarter folks are less likely to throw money their way, so why pitch the ads intelligently?


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ToughDiamond
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07 Dec 2023, 10:59 pm

Mountain Goat wrote:
Scratching cars is wrong, be it a beat up old rust heap or a luxury new car. If it was an accident then one has an excuse but one still needs to try and put it right. But if it was done on purpose no one has an excuse!

Most new cars today in the UK are leased as big companies offer bigger discounts to keep people leasing rather than buying, so few people buy. Some makes one can't even buy a new car outright as they only offer lease agreements for a typical period of three or five years and then one gets the choice to buy at the end or lease another new car instead. The downside to this is that those who have no interest to buy as long term leasing is seen as cheaper, have no intention to maintain the vehicles, and the leasing companies do not want the additional bills so they also have no want to maintain the vehicles, so when many of these ex-lease cars come onto the secondhand market they can be in such bad mechanical condition that they fail MOT's etc when they are not that old! Many were found to be so low on oil it was a miriacle their engines had not ceased!

Admittedly it was a glib example, and there's a case for seeing the hypothetical boy's act as immoral from a certain perspective. Suffice to say I'm not without sympathy for him, and that I see looking up to the wealthy as harmful.



auntblabby
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07 Dec 2023, 11:31 pm

consider the audience.



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08 Dec 2023, 12:34 am

Mountain Goat wrote:
Why Are TV Adverts Getting So Stupid?
Because either: (a) TV ad executives are themselves getting more stupid; (b) The average TV viewer is getting more stupid; or (c) both.

Back in the '70s, one of my Marketing profs told me that most advertisements were targeted for 12-year-olds.  I don't know how true this is nowadays (if it ever was); but if it is, then the target age seems to have decreased.


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08 Dec 2023, 12:39 am

The fact the ad caught your attention means the advertisers objective was achieved. It also answers your question.

Clickbait



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08 Dec 2023, 6:38 am

Well at least in the UK you can be thankful you don't have ads like these:




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ToughDiamond
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08 Dec 2023, 9:39 am

cyberdad wrote:
The fact the ad caught your attention means the advertisers objective was achieved. It also answers your question.

Well, one of the objectives. The ultimate goal of the ad is to make a sale, though advertisers do often behave as though the persuasion step is a foregone conclusion, and shove their propaganda under the punters' noses regardless of its effect. They'll happily annoy a million people to make one sale if they can do it cheaply enough.

But I think that in the advertising business model there's a lot in what you said, particularly for online marketing. Somebody is paying somebody for simply delivering ads, and whether or not the recipient buys the product doesn't seem to matter to them. I guess that's why a lot of people reckon the online advertising business model is broken and that the bubble will have to burst. I like the idea of obfuscating their tracking data in order to hasten that glorious day.



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09 Dec 2023, 10:30 pm

When I got rid of cable over 5 years ago, I thought no more very long commercials. Pluto TV had less commercials for a free streaming app, but now it has 5-12 ads. I’m really sick of seeing the ugly sweater party ads, I seen it around 30 times in one day.



cyberdad
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10 Dec 2023, 1:58 am

ToughDiamond wrote:
cyberdad wrote:
The fact the ad caught your attention means the advertisers objective was achieved. It also answers your question.

Well, one of the objectives. The ultimate goal of the ad is to make a sale, though advertisers do often behave as though the persuasion step is a foregone conclusion, and shove their propaganda under the punters' noses regardless of its effect. .


We live in an era of social media where people will share a funny or catchy advert. Even if you don't buy the product you might still mention it to your contacts, friends or FB page, That action might well translate to an increase in sales.



ToughDiamond
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10 Dec 2023, 10:31 am

cyberdad wrote:
ToughDiamond wrote:
cyberdad wrote:
The fact the ad caught your attention means the advertisers objective was achieved. It also answers your question.

Well, one of the objectives. The ultimate goal of the ad is to make a sale, though advertisers do often behave as though the persuasion step is a foregone conclusion, and shove their propaganda under the punters' noses regardless of its effect. .


We live in an era of social media where people will share a funny or catchy advert. Even if you don't buy the product you might still mention it to your contacts, friends or FB page, That action might well translate to an increase in sales.

I guess some of them do. Indeed, a lot of people out there seem content to wear clothes that carry ads on them, such as conspicuous brand names, which I consider to be the equivalent of walking around in a sandwich board without even being paid. But there still seems to be something unrealistic about the assumption that an ad necessarily causes any sales at all, and I think advertisers are often guilty of wishful thinking. For example, they put a lot of effort into outlawing and breaking internet ad blockers, though logic suggests that the only people they're "reaching" by doing so are people who are strongly opposed to having ads forced onto them. Still, maybe there are people out there who surrender more readily than I ever would. If somebody invades me, I never accept or embrace it, I just try to think of a way of kicking them out.



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10 Dec 2023, 2:16 pm

The once mighty Backstreet Boys have stooped to...this.


https://youtu.be/ZTNLjof_qfM

Sic transit gloria!

But check this out. The girl who stars in that silly dumbass commercial looks remarkably like this certain serious historic figure, and ought to be cast to play her in a movie.


https://youtu.be/Ul09jwM9F98



ToughDiamond
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10 Dec 2023, 3:19 pm

^
Indeed. Talking of once mighty:

Image
The Beatles were above that kind of thing when I was a lad. They did do a poster ad for apples (years before they formed the company of the same name), but that named no brands and it was purely in the interests of children's dental health, so that was forgivable.