My take on ads is this: I’ve been using the internet since 1989 - before search engines, advertising, SLIP/PPP/ADSL, etc.
When ads began to appear on websites in the late 90s, I was OK with it. A banner ad here, etc. Then they started to move. And flash. And make noise. And then popups, and pop-unders.
At that point I started to BLOCK THEM ALL. If your business model is a game of distraction from the site I’m visiting, then fuck you, your family, and anyone you’ve ever met.
Moving on to UI web-based stuff, the demise of excellent sites like AltaVista (with its superior search syntax) and the growth of Goooooooogle (with its astonishingly and intentionally shit search syntax), the progress and intention was obvious.
There was a brief period where Google, etc, provided what people wanted. But that time has passed. Now it’s all in on GIGO: garbage in, garbage out.
tl;dr: Once advertisers started to behave like gambling sites, they were yeeted to the hell in which they belong.
6nk06@sh.itjust.works 15 hours ago
I despise ads, it’s brainwashing and psychological manipulation. No amount is tolerable. I have refused jobs at advertising companies even when I had money problems and needed to eat. If I were working for Google, I would quit.
Evil_Incarnate@sopuli.xyz 14 hours ago
I know many people, including me, that fall victim to the manipulation of advertising.
Back in the olden days, it was “here is my product, and this is the price, if you like it buy from this store” Now it’s not just the actual ad, it’s product placement in tv and movies, celebrity endorsement, influencers, and all that.
Just remember that advertising costs money, and that is in the price of the product. Products that don’t advertise can easily be better value.
lupusblackfur@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
This is exactly my reasoning in refusing to do business with service providers that (in my view) over-advertise (looking at you Geico, Progressive, United Health, Taco Bell, other major advertisers)…
Any service provider doing that much advertising is telling me 2 things with every ad: First, you already obviously have too much money and, Second, you obviously don’t need my money.
Fuck you and your “brand recognition”.
🙄 🤡 🖕 💩
capuccino@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
There were a time when I wanted to study marketing. I always love how Coca-Cola doesn’t try to make you buy its product, it’s just there, it doesnt say “buy!”, “we cheap!”, “we are better than the others!” or any bullshit. That dream ended when I learned what SEO was and what was doing to internet.
swelter_spark@reddthat.com 12 hours ago
There are lots of local brands that don’t advertise that are better than nationally-known brands, at a much lower cost.