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Comment by reedf1 | Hacker News Reader

It's amazing how few people believe they are affected by ads. You must wonder why it's the most lucrative business in the world?

I'm sure I've also read somewhere that those most affected by ads are those who believe they are not affected by them.

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I’m one of those who claim to not (or seldom) be affected by ads, and I’d say my payment history can back that up. I usually buy based on other people’s experiences, eg by scanning 1-star reviews for red flags, or asking people I know about their experiences. When it comes to groceries I just buy products with certain traits (vegan, low on sugar, organic, low waste,...) which usually limits choices to products which are not advertised. Same thing with organic/sustainable fashion.

So maybe your purchase history is unaffected, which is a great thing I'd agree, but with ads, I worry about the psychological effect too. People can't really ignore manipulation, so I don't think it's plausible to say that how you _feel_ is unaffected by advertisements. I think the only way to remain impartial to it is to be never exposed the first place.

Organic, in my opinion, is a marketing term for the most part.

doesn't really matter since it's a numbers game: Even if the majority would be totally unaffected by ads, that would still leave a (significant) minority being affected, so still a very interesting business opportunity (which it is, of course). Nonetheless, I would count myself as one who is rather unaffected by ads, but still ads do give at least a presence to products that would otherwise get completely unnoticed. And if you don't drink beer and want to buy beer for friends who come over what could go wrong with the brands that are always on TV?

Exactly. The people here who believe they're too "smart" to be influenced are probably the biggest suckers!

I don't see any ads with ublock on my desktop and mobile browser. I believe the ads I don't see don't influence me. Can you believe that?

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