# 8/15/2014 column: Does advertising work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 15, 2014, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-15-2014-column-does-advertising-work/695600 "2014-08-15T13:00:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-15-2014-column-does-advertising-work/695600/41 "2014-08-19T14:21:56Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Another point that can be overlooked: The whole New Coke debacle happened precisely because some Coke executives underestimated the power of marketing. It all started when they got the wrong idea that people choose their soft drink based on which one tastes better, and the research was clear that people thought Pepsi tasted better. So Coke responded by reformulating their own product so it tasted better, too. > > Except that it turns out that people don’t want a drink that tastes better. They want the same drink that they’ve drunk all their lives, and which they’ve drunk all their lives because someone’s told them that it tastes better. That’s 100% marketing. It’s a bit more subtle than that. Extensive taste-tests showed people liked the Pepsi formulation better… by the sip. By the can, the Coke formulation was much preferred, the Pepsi-like flavor being too sweet and bland for Coke drinkers. The market’s shifted quite a bit towards sweeter tastes since then, but it was 30 years ago. All consumer products are “[some large percentage] marketing.” ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-15-2014-column-does-advertising-work/695600/42 "2014-08-20T11:30:17Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Maybe you should reread my post for comprehension. Diet Coke =/= diet coke. Okay, maybe I should have put “a diet coke” or “…cola” to reduce confusion. > > “New Coke” and Diet Coke share the same flavoring, minor formulation differences aside. > > Old Coke and Coke Zero, ditto. > > If you want to break them into subcategories that are not like the others, fine with me. Diet Coke was developed on its own and predates New Coke by a few years. When they decided to change the formula for their red can product, they based it on the recipe for Diet Coke. ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-15-2014-column-does-advertising-work/695600/43 "2014-08-20T21:11:14Z")
> [@JEngelman](#): > > Advertising does not work for me. I cannot think of any major purchase I have made, or any regular purchase that was motivated by advertising. What’s the control in your experiment? And obviously, this experiment is not even single-blind, let alone double-blind. Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-15-2014-column-does-advertising-work/695600/44 "2014-08-21T13:41:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Except that it turns out that people don’t want a drink that tastes better. They want the same drink that they’ve drunk all their lives, and which they’ve drunk all their lives because someone’s told them that it tastes better. That’s 100% marketing. For me, Pepsi has a weird aftertaste that Coke doesn’t have. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-15-2014-column-does-advertising-work/695600/45 "2014-08-21T15:58:40Z")
They’ve only recently proven the effect of advertising in what are called A/B experiments. You assign two random groups of people and each group goes to the same webpage and sees different ads on that webpage. You can then see how they respond. Because this is the Internet, you know a lot about the individuals in the two groups. For example, if they have Facebook accounts or Google Accounts, you may know their age or income. You know where they’re located. You know what browser and computer they use. You can then replace one the two and see a change in the response. When Obama ran in 2008 and 2012, his campaign were heavy into A/B testing. They tested two different ads to see which one got more volunteers or brought in more money. They would then take out the less effective one and replace it with another ad. In the end, they found the best pitches that generated the most amount of money or volunteers. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-15-2014-column-does-advertising-work/695600/46 "2014-08-27T15:59:11Z")
I would just like to say that, before this particular Cecil Adams column, I’d never heard of the “Call for Philip Morris!” commercials. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2014, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-15-2014-column-does-advertising-work/695600/47 "2014-08-27T23:16:56Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > I would just like to say that, before this particular Cecil Adams column, I’d never heard of the “Call for Philip Morris!” commercials. That says more about your date of birth than anything else. The campaign lasted for sixty years. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-15-2014-column-does-advertising-work/695600/48 "2014-08-28T18:32:04Z")
Cecil’s claim that a poor click-through rate proves online advertising doesn’t work is absurd. It’s something we can measure with online ads, but not with print, radio, or tv ads. So we look at the click-through rate in a vacuum, declare it ‘bad,’ and decide other advertising is better? Online ads do what print ads do, and a click-through is gravy. The closest comparison would be the tv ads that tell you to call an 800 number\* right now!\* I wonder what percentage of tv viewers who see an ad do call \*right now! \* Yet nobody would make the claim that tv ads don’t work.[sup]1[/sup] [sup]1[/sup]Oh, by the way, as a doper, I don’t own a tv. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2014, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-15-2014-column-does-advertising-work/695600/49 "2014-08-30T01:08:18Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > That says more about your date of birth than anything else. The [“call for Philip Morris”] campaign lasted for sixty years. That’s pretty amazing, considering that cigarette advertisements were banned from both TV and radio in the U.S. starting in 1971. Does that mean the first “Call for Philip Morris” radio ad premiered in 1911? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-15-2014-column-does-advertising-work/695600/50 "2014-08-31T03:31:18Z")
The campaign started in print during WW1, and the original radio/TV actor, who started in 1933, continued making personal appearances until he retired in 1974. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-15-2014-column-does-advertising-work/695600.md?page=2)