Mon. May 10/10 Pace51
Why advertisements are so annoying, and some practical solutions.
Well, to start this off, I personally can’t stand most advertisements. They’re sneaky, often rude, and usually garbage at that. Below are some particular types of advertisements I cannot stand. What about your opinions? Please post in comments! Personal bad experiences much appreciated, though sharing is optional. Change names and dates for confidentiality if desired.
By the way, the best way to deal with a bad experience concerning annoying or persistant advertisers is calling your local news station. It works like magic. Call them, leave your name and number and experience, and watch the salesmen go away.
Guilt marketing: Many people, me included, have a special hate for these. Not only do they appeal to our most generous and kind emotions, they often don’t even use the money for any non-greed related cause. For example, McDonalds advertises that they put 10 cents from every happy meal into their personal charity fund. This is pretty sneaky, because they know that children make up a large part of their consumer base, and they use this deal to also guilt parents into buying their kids McDonalds instead of maybe going to another restaurant. However, since happy meals are pretty cheap, meaning that giving away ten cents a meal decreases a large amount of profits, and since the money goes to a good cause, they can be pardoned. Kinda. However, on a worse note, then we have the other companies who exploit our good side for profit. For example, rice crispies had heart-warming commercials running about a small boy with glasses, specially picked to look extra innocent, going to stores and brightening up peoples day by giving them home-made rice Krispies squares. That was bollocks. They made us feel nice to buy their product.
Telemarketers: The ones with a special place reserved for them in hell. They almost always have foreign accents, persistent attitudes, and sound like they’re reading off of a computer screen. They also have an annoying tendency to call during dinner. In Canada, the governments finally did something amazing and introduced do-not call lists, which have millions of members. However, these annoying marketers still constantly bypass the lists and call until you issue a formal complaint. They may be paid to advertise, but they should be less persistent.
Sexy people buy this, so why shouldn’t you: These commercials are funny or entertaining, but eventually get old and stupid. Not to mention demeaning. However, the easiest types to deal with are those on bill boards, busses, or stationary signs. You can call the township and give them a good reason to remove the offending advertisement.
Flash game exclusive features offered on indigenous sites only: In less words, these are when you are playing an online game but the only way to use certain cool features is by playing the game on the creators site. On one side of the debate, many, especially the creators, argue that they took the trouble to make the game, and you could repay them by playing it on their site or contributing by paying money. However, this is also BS. Charging money or putting conditions on a flash game is insanely stupid. People enjoy small flash games for occasional plays in their free time. They’re not going to play the games for hours and hours, so why make people pay? It just means that a lot less people will play your game. Secondly, if you make a flash game, do it for experience or for unselfish reasons. Making the games solely to divert traffic to your site is very cruel. You are stealing gamers from another site that earned their business by giving them free and fun games, and “bribing” gamers with extra rewards for coming to your site. These can’t be prevented, really, but just live without the added features. Unless, they make up more than 50% of the game. Then, its your choice, but…
Attack ads: Well, these are usually pretty hilarious, as well as retarded. However, they are not legal in Canada, unless subtly or indirectly done. I once watched an American channel, and a commercial came on featuring the Burger King stealing an egg McMuffin recipe in the dead of night and taking it back to his restaurant, and then a caption appeared saying something along the lines of “It’s the exact same thing”. After my initial reaction of WTF died down, well, it got annoying. Just when you think ads cant get more annoying or terrible, they start fighting each other in battles that closely resemble internet troll wars or catfights. As for solutions, well, whenever a commercial like that comes on, buy the victimized product. Or better yet, buy a locally grown product.
In product endorsing: When a company endorses a product in a small segment of another product. The product usually has nothing to do with the other product, and looks entirely out of place. For example, remember when intel endorsed BF2’s highway Tampa map? The description of the map was that the American forces were working to valiantly defend the intel chips they were transporting in the middle of the desert. WTF. In these scenarios, play the map, just ignore Intel .
Advertising your product after the consumer has bought it: CASABLANCA… Many people absolutely hate it, and rightfully so, when they buy a product, and in the tutorial the company constantly advertises and talks about their product over and over. When this happens, return the product. Or even better, write a hate blog.
Subtle movie advertising: One product flash or brand name in a movie or TV show is alright, but 500$ Armani jeans on every girl and American eagle shirts on everyone gets quite tiresome. Also, remember Mel Gibsons “Taxi”? Every running scene featured a giant billboard advertising subway. This can’t be helped, unless you lay off television forever, though. So, you are forced to roll with it.
“Its your fault if the event this product was designed to prevent occurred because you didn’t buy it”: Commercials that make it seem like the world will end in a nuclear storm because you don’t buy that tiny packet of serviettes are very annoying. Especially when they start showing obviously rigged ads of satisfied customers. Like, if 3 people loved the product and a hundred hated it, they pick the three to go on the commercials. The best way to deal with these is to go online and spread the word about how dissatisfied you are with the product. Twitter is a powerful tool for this. This brings me to the next type of ad…
Twitter, facebook, and MSN Myspace have ADHD: These three tools are quite useful, but they advertise in the sneakiest ways possible. They pay programs to have the actors talk all about how much they love their accounts, blah blah blah. Even BF2S is an example of face book advertising! (No offence Chuy). They’re quite popular, and for good reason, because they are very helpful especially for businesses. The only time they really go to far is endorsing TV. No, not trying to tell you to give up your myspace account because a certain show about stereotypical 80’s style singing teenagers stuck in modern times talk about it every two seconds. If it peeves you off, though, dump and switch to facebook, or vice versa.
Door-to-door salesmen: Don’t you hate it when hyperactive under age children bombard you with questions nonstop? And when they pick on your newborn as well? Salesmen aren’t as bad as they used to be, other than the occasional Jehovah’s witness or carpet salesmen. If they go solo, they’re usually trying to scam you or sell you something. In that case, outwit them, or have fun verbally tongue tying them. If they work for a company, and are persistent, well, that’s where your local friendly Channel 8 news team comes in.
Quick Boycotting Tip- To boycott a product, go about it like this. Eliminate it from one store at a time. In your community, get a group of people who usually shop for the targeted product at the same store to stop buying the product there. Gradually, the company may pull out of that store because of declining sales. Works better than just not buying a product yourself.
Anyways that’s a rant with advice and tips. Discuss advertising. If you have any hints or tips on how to avoid it, please tell. If you have any funny stories where you humiliated a salesmen trying to scam you, please share as well. No one likes advertising. Speaking of which, there’s this great site I know, BF2S, with no advertising whatsoever! Not even annoying subtle advertising! You should all visit it! It’s great!
Why advertisements are so annoying, and some practical solutions.
Well, to start this off, I personally can’t stand most advertisements. They’re sneaky, often rude, and usually garbage at that. Below are some particular types of advertisements I cannot stand. What about your opinions? Please post in comments! Personal bad experiences much appreciated, though sharing is optional. Change names and dates for confidentiality if desired.
By the way, the best way to deal with a bad experience concerning annoying or persistant advertisers is calling your local news station. It works like magic. Call them, leave your name and number and experience, and watch the salesmen go away.
Guilt marketing: Many people, me included, have a special hate for these. Not only do they appeal to our most generous and kind emotions, they often don’t even use the money for any non-greed related cause. For example, McDonalds advertises that they put 10 cents from every happy meal into their personal charity fund. This is pretty sneaky, because they know that children make up a large part of their consumer base, and they use this deal to also guilt parents into buying their kids McDonalds instead of maybe going to another restaurant. However, since happy meals are pretty cheap, meaning that giving away ten cents a meal decreases a large amount of profits, and since the money goes to a good cause, they can be pardoned. Kinda. However, on a worse note, then we have the other companies who exploit our good side for profit. For example, rice crispies had heart-warming commercials running about a small boy with glasses, specially picked to look extra innocent, going to stores and brightening up peoples day by giving them home-made rice Krispies squares. That was bollocks. They made us feel nice to buy their product.
Telemarketers: The ones with a special place reserved for them in hell. They almost always have foreign accents, persistent attitudes, and sound like they’re reading off of a computer screen. They also have an annoying tendency to call during dinner. In Canada, the governments finally did something amazing and introduced do-not call lists, which have millions of members. However, these annoying marketers still constantly bypass the lists and call until you issue a formal complaint. They may be paid to advertise, but they should be less persistent.
Sexy people buy this, so why shouldn’t you: These commercials are funny or entertaining, but eventually get old and stupid. Not to mention demeaning. However, the easiest types to deal with are those on bill boards, busses, or stationary signs. You can call the township and give them a good reason to remove the offending advertisement.
Flash game exclusive features offered on indigenous sites only: In less words, these are when you are playing an online game but the only way to use certain cool features is by playing the game on the creators site. On one side of the debate, many, especially the creators, argue that they took the trouble to make the game, and you could repay them by playing it on their site or contributing by paying money. However, this is also BS. Charging money or putting conditions on a flash game is insanely stupid. People enjoy small flash games for occasional plays in their free time. They’re not going to play the games for hours and hours, so why make people pay? It just means that a lot less people will play your game. Secondly, if you make a flash game, do it for experience or for unselfish reasons. Making the games solely to divert traffic to your site is very cruel. You are stealing gamers from another site that earned their business by giving them free and fun games, and “bribing” gamers with extra rewards for coming to your site. These can’t be prevented, really, but just live without the added features. Unless, they make up more than 50% of the game. Then, its your choice, but…
Attack ads: Well, these are usually pretty hilarious, as well as retarded. However, they are not legal in Canada, unless subtly or indirectly done. I once watched an American channel, and a commercial came on featuring the Burger King stealing an egg McMuffin recipe in the dead of night and taking it back to his restaurant, and then a caption appeared saying something along the lines of “It’s the exact same thing”. After my initial reaction of WTF died down, well, it got annoying. Just when you think ads cant get more annoying or terrible, they start fighting each other in battles that closely resemble internet troll wars or catfights. As for solutions, well, whenever a commercial like that comes on, buy the victimized product. Or better yet, buy a locally grown product.
In product endorsing: When a company endorses a product in a small segment of another product. The product usually has nothing to do with the other product, and looks entirely out of place. For example, remember when intel endorsed BF2’s highway Tampa map? The description of the map was that the American forces were working to valiantly defend the intel chips they were transporting in the middle of the desert. WTF. In these scenarios, play the map, just ignore Intel .
Advertising your product after the consumer has bought it: CASABLANCA… Many people absolutely hate it, and rightfully so, when they buy a product, and in the tutorial the company constantly advertises and talks about their product over and over. When this happens, return the product. Or even better, write a hate blog.
Subtle movie advertising: One product flash or brand name in a movie or TV show is alright, but 500$ Armani jeans on every girl and American eagle shirts on everyone gets quite tiresome. Also, remember Mel Gibsons “Taxi”? Every running scene featured a giant billboard advertising subway. This can’t be helped, unless you lay off television forever, though. So, you are forced to roll with it.
“Its your fault if the event this product was designed to prevent occurred because you didn’t buy it”: Commercials that make it seem like the world will end in a nuclear storm because you don’t buy that tiny packet of serviettes are very annoying. Especially when they start showing obviously rigged ads of satisfied customers. Like, if 3 people loved the product and a hundred hated it, they pick the three to go on the commercials. The best way to deal with these is to go online and spread the word about how dissatisfied you are with the product. Twitter is a powerful tool for this. This brings me to the next type of ad…
Twitter, facebook, and MSN Myspace have ADHD: These three tools are quite useful, but they advertise in the sneakiest ways possible. They pay programs to have the actors talk all about how much they love their accounts, blah blah blah. Even BF2S is an example of face book advertising! (No offence Chuy). They’re quite popular, and for good reason, because they are very helpful especially for businesses. The only time they really go to far is endorsing TV. No, not trying to tell you to give up your myspace account because a certain show about stereotypical 80’s style singing teenagers stuck in modern times talk about it every two seconds. If it peeves you off, though, dump and switch to facebook, or vice versa.
Door-to-door salesmen: Don’t you hate it when hyperactive under age children bombard you with questions nonstop? And when they pick on your newborn as well? Salesmen aren’t as bad as they used to be, other than the occasional Jehovah’s witness or carpet salesmen. If they go solo, they’re usually trying to scam you or sell you something. In that case, outwit them, or have fun verbally tongue tying them. If they work for a company, and are persistent, well, that’s where your local friendly Channel 8 news team comes in.
Quick Boycotting Tip- To boycott a product, go about it like this. Eliminate it from one store at a time. In your community, get a group of people who usually shop for the targeted product at the same store to stop buying the product there. Gradually, the company may pull out of that store because of declining sales. Works better than just not buying a product yourself.
Anyways that’s a rant with advice and tips. Discuss advertising. If you have any hints or tips on how to avoid it, please tell. If you have any funny stories where you humiliated a salesmen trying to scam you, please share as well. No one likes advertising. Speaking of which, there’s this great site I know, BF2S, with no advertising whatsoever! Not even annoying subtle advertising! You should all visit it! It’s great!
