I got to thinking. I don’t recall that I have ever actually gone out and BOUGHT something because I saw it advertised.
Yes, there are things I’ve seen advertised that I wanted (a Mini Cooper, for instance), but I didn’t go out and buy it. I remember at some point thinking the hair in the Pantene commercials looked really nice, but I knew that even if I bought that stuff, my hair would never be that hair, so I didn’t buy it. Opting instead for some really expensive stuff that I never saw advertised but you had to go buy it in a salon. If they’d sell it to you.
However, there are things I resolved never to buy, based on a bad reaction to their advertising. Wisk, for instance (“Ring around the collar! Ring around the collar!”). I must have been the only person avoiding that, because they ran those commercials for years.
I loved the Burger King jingle. I never went out of my way to go to a Burger King, though.
I used to eat at Quizno’s all the time. Haven’t been there since the “Raised by wolves” ad.
There’s a very annoying tendency not to have a jingle, but to have some kind of a lame catchphrase, and then sing it in an annoying tuneless manner. There’s one now, and for years, about a mattress company, where the female singer goes on in an almost-country kind of voice about how it’s a gray way to get a gray night’s sleep. So, I need a mattress. I am not going there. Anywhere but there.
I find most liquor and beer ads, especially Capt. Morgan (found in the front seat of cars in 9 out of 10 drunken driving crashes in my county) will
feature goddam obnoxious idiots peddling same. If I want to be a goddam obnoxious idiot, I don’t feel moved to buy that particular brand of liquor or beer, thanks. Mostly advertising is wasted on me, I am not at all brand-loyal. If I see a commercial for Tide, I’ll write “buy detergent” on the shopping list, not “buy Tide”. I will remember fast food commercials if they tout something new and different and give the whatever burger a try.
When I saw it on an infomercial, I just had to have it. It’s pretty much become my go to pan for brownies, corn bread, cakes, and no bake desserts. It was well worth the $20 I spent on it.
The infomercial made it seem so useful, and I admit it, I was quite gullible back then. It’s a nice tool and all, but it wasn’t worth the $60 I paid for it. These days I mostly use it to crush ice and make tuna salad.
I love advertising. Love it! My husband thinks I was born to be a focus group, as I’m continually commenting on the quality of the advertising I see, and because I refuse to let him fastforward through commercials.
However, I don’t know how much my purchasing habits are influenced by it; it seems like it has far more influence on my media consumption (other shows, movies, music, video games) than it does for actual useful items. It’s also hard to find the line between “official” advertising and what might be incidental advertising. For example, I like to watch makeup reviews on youtube, and I’m sure some of the women who do that get some sponsorships and I have bought things based on their recommendations. Does that count?
Oh, I tried one of those awful Dunkin Donuts waffle sandwiches directly due to advertising. I also bought a rubber broom “As Seen on TV” (love it for dog hair!). I’m sure if I tried I could think of more.
My youngest is 2 and absolutely loves trains. When his birthday was approaching, his father and I were watching TV when a commercial for Fisher Price’s GeoTrax Timbertown Railway came on. As soon as it was over, we turned to each other and said “Lil’ dude HAS to have that!”. The part of the commercial that sold me was that it showed a small kid really smashing the trains up and standing on the tracks. I’m typically very satisfied with Fisher Price quality-wise, so we went out and got it for his birthday. He adores it and plays with it daily. Of course, we’ve sunk a ridiculous amount of money into accessories and track extenders since then, but it’s been worth it.
And yes, he regularly stands on the tracks. So far, so good.
My husband is a total fallguy for the latest must-haves.
I like to think I’m immune to advertising. I can remember the commericial sometimes should I submit myself to that pile of drivel they call entertainment on TV but can rarely remember what was being advertised.
Hope that doesn’t mean that I’m falling prey to the dreaded subliminal effect. Eekers.
Remember those Capri Sun ads with the kids who turned into the Silver Surfer? When I was younger those totally got me to try the drinks and I wound up loving them. These days I’m immune to tv advertising, not because I’m special, but because I don’t watch tv.
Ugh, can they make a brownie pan that’s all centers? I love the center ones. All soft and chewy on every side…
I’ve bought a few things off of infomercials. My food dehydrator, for one. However, I didn’t do it on impulse, I looked to see if there’s better deals, read reviews, etc. I know I’ve seen commercials for new or limited time burgers, but it didn’t make me rush out to get one, just remembered to buy one if I was out and was hungry.
One I remember well was the game Banjo-Kazooie on the Nintendo 64. They mailed out videotapes with video of the gameplay, maybe 10 minutes long, narrated by Jon Lovitz. It looked cool, so when it came out, I bought it. I’m still a fan of the series; I pre-ordered their latest game, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, to get a free code to download the original game on Xbox Live Arcade, and I also bought the sequel when it came out on XBLA.
I can’t think offhand of any ads that convinced me to buy anything. Sometimes a commercial makes me aware that something exists. After buying a Honda Civic wagon in 1990 (because me son, a transport engineer, recommended it) I greatly regretted that they stopped selling them. So when I got ads for the Fit, I decided that this looked like a replacement. It was and I bought one.
There is a commercial that still cracks me up every time I see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0_NRapPecc, but I have never bought one of their pizzas. On the other hand, I used to drink Labatt Blue until they had a commercial featuring a middle aged woman with a thick accent cleaning toilets. I never did understand what it had to do with beer, but it was so crude that I have never drunk a Labatt beer since.
I had been talking about guying a DVR for a year or so, so when I saw the ad for one reduced by $50, I went out to buy it, but I don’t think that counts. In that case, I did not have a choice of brands; it had to mate with my TV cable. Now you can get cable from the phone company, but I don’t ever want to deal again with Bell Canada.
I was having a lot of trouble with a flaky PC about the time the “I’m a Mac” ads started. The ads prompted me to drop by the Apple store and see the new Macs for myself. I thought about it, and did some research and talked to folks and ended up making the conversion.
The ad did not convince me in and of itself, but it sparked the interest.
It’s called a knife; you cut off the outside after baking.
I’m with the “sometimes ads spark my interest but I try to look into it some before buying, depending on the item/cost” group. If it’s a few dollars for an item I won’t exactly do serious research, but if it’s more pricey (mmm, KitchenAid stand mixer) you bet I do.
And sometimes, of course, ads turn me off completely.
Same for me - a commercial might get me thinking about a certain product, and I may go look at it, but I’ll also shop alternatives. My decision won’t be based on a commercial but on what my shopping shows.
One lesson I learned earlier this week - there was something advertised on TV that caught my eye, so I decided to google their website. First thing that came up was <product name> scam, so I went there and discovered that the first thing they asked for was your credit card number and address - before you got to see what shipping and handling was (turns out it was the same as the $14.95 selling price) and once they got your billing info, you’d ordered the item. Even if you never clicked “Submit Order” you were getting the gadget sent. And they would refund the purchase price, but not the shipping and handling. Hell of a racket.
Swiffer I think I found out about from their ads and decided to give them a try. When I lived in apartments with hardwood floors (god, I miss hardwood floors), they were a fucking godsend.
If you had a brownie pan of infinite size, they’d all be centers. And you’d have an infinite number of brownies. Mmmmm.
If you’d prefer an infinite number of edge brownies, we can do that too. We just extend that ThinkGeek brownie maze to infinite length.
I used to be a math major- can you tell?
Swiffer WetJet, here. No more having to deal with heavy buckets of water when the kitchen floor needs mopped, and no more having to lug the damn bucket into the bathroom to dump out the water. Mr. Neville bitched for a while about all the consumables, but he’s realized this is NOT negotiable- I’m not dealing with a mop and bucket any more. He wants me to use a mop, I’ll give him a mop. You don’t want to know what I’d do with the mop.
