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by lelanthran5 hours ago |
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upvoteby lesostep2 hours ago|
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>> mostly useful for B2C penetration

Might be useful for a B that wants to penetrate some C, but is it really useful from a penetrated C perspective?

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upvoteby nticompass2 hours ago|
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Are we still talking about ads?
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upvoteby edoceo1 hours ago|
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Of course. It seems like an illustration of who's getting F-ed
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upvoteby jordigh4 hours ago|
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An ad is never helpful because ads are designed to mislead me into buying something I didn't need or knew about before I saw the ad.

If nothing else, an ad cannot impartially compare a product with the competition (and sometimes the "competition" is buying nothing at all), therefore every ad lies.

If I already needed or knew about it, I didn't need the ad.

If I was happy with my life without the product advertised, I didn't need the ad.

Furthermore, ads are fueling our capitalist, consumerist economy that is destroying the planet. Ads are a literal existential threat to humans.

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upvoteby drfloyd513 hours ago|
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I saw an add for a medicine that was new on the market and my friend who could use the meds, was unaware of its existence.

Now, after a doctor’s involvement, my friend is on the new med and it treats their condition better and the quality of their life is improved.

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upvoteby specproc2 minutes ago|
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> Furthermore, ads are fueling our capitalist, consumerist economy that is destroying the planet. Ads are a literal existential threat to humans.

I'm sorry, a single anecdote does not invalidate the above.

Ads are evil. They make us desire things we don't need, undermine our self-esteem, and in the large part just sell scams. I'd be happy to ban most forms of advertising. It's a plague.

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upvoteby pasquinelli2 hours ago|
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seems like the ad was superfluous. the doctor treating your friend's condition would be aware of new drugs relevant to your friend's condition. i go to a doctor because i don't know about medicine, i don't want to be educated on medicine from snake oil salesmen.
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upvoteby drfloyd512 hours ago|
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How does it seem like the ad was superfluous?

The ad triggered a series of events that helped my friend.

The doctor, for whatever reason, was not the primary motivation.

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upvoteby pasquinelli1 hours ago|
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> How does it seem like the ad was superfluous?

just to be clear i don't know your friend or their life or their medical condition or if the drug you saw an ad for treats their condition or if you saw an ad for a drug or if your friend has a medical conditon or if you have a friend at all... and i don't know if every event in a chain of events is necessary to the eventual outcome of that chain of events... and i can't see into the alternate reality wherein you didn't see that ad for a drug, to know your friend would've been fine in the end... and so on.

i'm speaking more generally, saying advertising is superfluous to medicine.

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upvoteby jodrellblank1 hours ago|
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Conspicuously absent from your scenario is the way the doctor becomes aware of the new drug. How does that happen?
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upvoteby dylan60414 minutes ago|
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By accepting SWAG from the pharma rep, or accepting free trips to conferences sponsored by pharama. If a doctor has not heard about a new drug the their reps just haven't made their way to them yet because they're in a smaller market. The yet is key, eventually a rep will make their way to them. More than likely much sooner than the TV ads run
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upvoteby rcxdude34 minutes ago|
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By researching new drugs? Though sadly at the moment the doctor is also a target of advertising. The point being that this should generally be a pull process driven by a demand (and mediated by neutral review and publication processes) and not a push being driven by a supply (mediated by a process that goes to the highest bidder).
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upvoteby pasquinelli28 minutes ago|
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so in your mind "advertisement" covers any transmission of information?
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upvoteby jodrellblank12 minutes ago|
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so in your mind, a pharmaceutical company telling a patient that a drug exists is "advertisement" but a pharma company telling a doctor that a drug exists magically isn't?
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upvoteby jamespo2 hours ago|
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Ah this world where doctors are perfect and know everything
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upvoteby pasquinelli1 hours ago|
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ah the world where ads are a good form of education.
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upvoteby freedomben3 hours ago|
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This happened to me as well, and during a football game ad (which I generally skip and despise highly). The signal-to-noise ratio is extremely low with ads, but they indeed can be helpful sometimes.
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upvoteby 2 hours ago|
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upvoteby s1artibartfast2 hours ago|
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I need a new dishwasher. I dont want to go knocking on doors until I find somewhere that sells them. Im glad they have signs, webpages, and info sheets.

Promotion and discovery are important. Advertising is the spread of information. Of course some can be bad or misleading, and that is bad.

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upvoteby rcxdude30 minutes ago|
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Publishing information about your product on your own website is not really what most people consider advertising. Nor is being added to lists of similar products. Most people object to 'push' advertising, where attempts to persuade you to buy a product are inserted whereever your attention is, as opposed to 'pull' processes where you have a need and are trying to gather information on how best to solve it.
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upvoteby dylan60418 minutes ago|
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> If I was happy with my life without the product advertised, I didn't need the ad.

Well, how do you know that your life couldn't be better with the product? /s

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upvoteby daveguy4 hours ago|
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You argue that ads can be helpful... by saying all the ways ads are helpful to the business. That's not what Google means. It's a way to make ads not sound like an obnoxious shitshow by pretending they are helpful for the consumer. The only way they are remotely helpful is to let someone know about a product they didn't know about. But that's not what ads are really for and we all know it. They're for manipulating people into buying a product, but whether they need it is purely coincidental. The admongers can stop pretending otherwise.
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upvoteby lelanthran2 hours ago|
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>> Now, if you're talking about internet ads, then you're talking about a different beast altogether (B2C), and those ads can be helpful to purchasers if they were already in the market for $FOO.

> You argue that ads can be helpful... by saying all the ways ads are helpful to the business.

Are you sure that's all I said.

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upvoteby daveguy2 hours ago|
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Your example on the statement was about the companies. What Google said has nothing to do with the companies. They're clearly trying to paper over the manipulation. I was giving you that credit for the one thing they're slightly good for once. But really we all know that consumers can find products just fine on their own through word of mouth and reviews. But advertisers manipulate that too with paid reviews and astroturfing. Way to pount out the only thing I agreed with you on as if I didn't, even though the majority of your post was arguing for the ads because they benefit companies. And you even said those internet ads that let people know about a product aren't worth the money. You are a true advertiser. Congratulations.
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