magic9mushroom
If you're going to downvote me, and nobody's already voiced your objection, please reply and tell me
10mo ago
There are two purposes of ads:
Create common knowledge that deals are available
Hoodwink gullible people into taking bad deals.
#1 is strongly positive-sum because it reduces deadweight loss. #2 is strongly negative-sum; the equilibrium is that everyone gets taught about how not to fall for ads, and also that businesses spend large resources on marketing, both of which are losses to society. Back in the 1930s when marketing psychology and communications technology were far less advanced, #1 was the bigger effect. Nowadays it is fairly obvious that #2 is the bigger effect.
You can't uninvent modern marketing techniques, and you can't ban ads without extreme collateral damage, but reducing their effectiveness is almost certainly a net win. Ads masquerading as non-ads are more effective and therefore bad. Ads that are better targetted to people's psychological weaknesses are more effective and therefore bad.
There's also the third one - capture the territory for the brand in the cultural space. In fact, most of major brand's ads are like that. Coca-Cola ads don't advertise where you can get your sugar hit $0.02/bottle cheaper than usual. They advertise that drinking Coca-Cola is part of the American culture and by drinking it, you're being a good member of society, and all that. When I was in market for a car, I read a ton of articles, discussed on forums, read manufacturer sites, signed up for various deal groups, etc. One thing that was absolutely, 100% useless for me was any brand's ad campaigns. Local dealers, which do run campaigns sometimes, and those could be either 1 or 2 - sometimes gave useful information about actual deals. Brand's ads are almost always "Driving is cool, do it!". Sadly, though completely useless for me, ads of this type seem to be pretty effective overall.
"In your interest" is very vaguely defined. Is being perceived as a cool dude in your interest? For myself, I don't really care for it, but many other people behave, like they do. Can I deny them their agency and claim that their true interests lie elsewhere? I think it's be presumptuous. If they say they want to be cool, then they want to be cool. And then consuming brands that are perceived as "cool" would be in their interests.
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Notes -
There are two purposes of ads:
Create common knowledge that deals are available
Hoodwink gullible people into taking bad deals.
#1 is strongly positive-sum because it reduces deadweight loss. #2 is strongly negative-sum; the equilibrium is that everyone gets taught about how not to fall for ads, and also that businesses spend large resources on marketing, both of which are losses to society. Back in the 1930s when marketing psychology and communications technology were far less advanced, #1 was the bigger effect. Nowadays it is fairly obvious that #2 is the bigger effect.
You can't uninvent modern marketing techniques, and you can't ban ads without extreme collateral damage, but reducing their effectiveness is almost certainly a net win. Ads masquerading as non-ads are more effective and therefore bad. Ads that are better targetted to people's psychological weaknesses are more effective and therefore bad.
There's also the third one - capture the territory for the brand in the cultural space. In fact, most of major brand's ads are like that. Coca-Cola ads don't advertise where you can get your sugar hit $0.02/bottle cheaper than usual. They advertise that drinking Coca-Cola is part of the American culture and by drinking it, you're being a good member of society, and all that. When I was in market for a car, I read a ton of articles, discussed on forums, read manufacturer sites, signed up for various deal groups, etc. One thing that was absolutely, 100% useless for me was any brand's ad campaigns. Local dealers, which do run campaigns sometimes, and those could be either 1 or 2 - sometimes gave useful information about actual deals. Brand's ads are almost always "Driving is cool, do it!". Sadly, though completely useless for me, ads of this type seem to be pretty effective overall.
That is within the scope of my #2, AFAIK. They are trying to get you to buy their brand when this is not actually in your interest.
"In your interest" is very vaguely defined. Is being perceived as a cool dude in your interest? For myself, I don't really care for it, but many other people behave, like they do. Can I deny them their agency and claim that their true interests lie elsewhere? I think it's be presumptuous. If they say they want to be cool, then they want to be cool. And then consuming brands that are perceived as "cool" would be in their interests.
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