"Advertising doesn't work on me!"
If this is true, congrats. You are the .000001%. It works on people really well in the broad scope. It makes them gobs and gobs of money.
If this is true, congrats. You are the .000001%. It works on people really well in the broad scope. It makes them gobs and gobs of money.
For me, there's ads I actively enjoy watching. The old Cog[0] ad for the Honda Accord is one such case, as is the He-Man/Skeletor[1] ad for Money Supermarket (well, that and every other ad in that campaign). These work incredibly well on me as the brand awareness sort of marketing, and I'm sufficiently aware that I can correct for it — but I'm almost certainly unaware of my susceptibility to other sorts.
0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PgTjhx1VLwMost advertising/targeting doesn't work on most people most of the time, but we all have to endure it because it grabs just enough extra net revenue.
I suspect the vast majority of the users plonk down after work to look for a show. they are tired and they don't want to put a lot of effort into selecting the show or even paying attention to it. the suggestion will do. and the billion dollar provider staffed by high end experts has the analytics to back that up.
Meanwhile the noisy minority of users are seen complaining loudly about this or that feature not catering directly to them.
*I'm not trying to say you are that noisy minority btw, I only mean to evaluate the suggested premise of your comment.
Heck, there a huge variance in quality of recommendation engines. YouTube is clearly superior to say, Amazon Video.
And the next time you need a product, you have a positive attachment to certain brands.
The only time i actually like ads and feel it "works on me" is when the product is a new area i have not previously seen before. Eg heated cups - i love my Ember. It sucks, but there's not much competition i'm aware of - so early ads were a dominated space. I eat those ads up if it's a product area i care about. (and i really love heated coffee lol)
(Years later I read that Allbirds is part of the SV tech worker uniform.)
Also I definitely have clicked on those marketing email newsletters and made purchases based on those. In case I sound like a major consumer, I will mention that I managed to live in New Jersey for 8 years spending $1200 a month. That's rent, food, transportation, and impulse buys.
Then, beyond that, you can get into the stuff that uses observations about basic human psychology. It might be arrogance to consider yourself above human weakness. You are probably familiar with the strategy of brand awareness? All else being equal you are more likely to purchase a product that is familiar to you. If you see an advertisement for a product, even if you try to form a negative emotional attachment immediately, the emotional tenor will fade but the familiarity will remain.
I'm not going to say every form of advertising is effective, probably a lot of the web stuff that can be gamed is gamed and thus less effective, but I'd be cautious assuming it won't work on you (or anyone else for that matter).