@morbiuswilters said:
@HardwareGeek said:@flabdablet said:@HardwareGeek said:In fact, I make it a point never to click a sponsored link in Google results, even if it is the actual site I was looking for; I scroll down to the "organic" search result.
Genuine question: when was the last time you were actually interested in a web ad enough to click through it, and after having done so did you end up better off?
Genuine answer: I don't know. It's not the sort of thing I keep track of, but I would be rather surprised if I had intentionally clicked more than one or two ads in the last year. Most likely reason for having done so: Curiosity, "WTF is that weird stuff they're advertising?" Least likely reason for having done so: Wanting to actually buy something that was advertised. I probably clicked more ads accidentally. Likely reasons for having done that: 1) It was masquerading as a content link, 2) A pop-up ad had a fake "dismiss" X that really clicked-through.
CTRs aren't always that big of a deal, either. Sure, for the "One Weird Trick to Cure Aliens Parasites!" ads, they care, because they're more-or-less black market anyway.
But a lot of brands just want brand awareness. Coke and Lexus care less if you visit their site and more if they get you to see their latest thing. (And before someone says "That still doesn't work on me!" you are wrong, advertising absolutely does work on everyone with a brain. What's interesting about that is that "smart" people often think they're too clever to be tricked by the plain ads like all the "great unwashed masses". But those are precisely the people who are easily manipulated by more insidious forms of advertising. Good ads teach you what to want. Great ads teach you how to want.)
Look at all the anti-consumer people who have matching skinny jeans ($170, Urban Outfitters), Priuses, "tribal" tatts and more shitty Apple equipment than a Cupertino public school during tax season.
Look at Whole Foods: this is a store founded on the idea that people will pay four times as much for broccoli so long as poor, unfashionable people aren't allowed in the store. Pseudo-scientific products which all claim vague health benefits and which subtly imply you will die without them? That shit flies off the shelves. Macrobiotic toilet paper that's packaged slightly differently from what working-class people can buy? You can feel the elitism with every ass-wiping!
If all of this sounds bad to you, I suspect you are very naive and have a very high opinion of yourself. Manipulation is everywhere, and at least ads are only trying to get kids to smoke cigarettes and not something evil, like selling people on racism or socialized healthcare. Well, in that last case Obamacare has had some really shameless ad campaigns.. and Obama has actually been sold by a massive, coordinated ad campaign. So that's shitty.
But that's my point: if ads are selling you on dish soap, it ain't so bad. It's when they're selling you other things that you should worry.
So why exactly should I want to expose myself to this garbage? To be "educated" on how to want? "Demented" indeed! Wanting is literally the opposite of the mental development.
Thanks for yet another reason to block all ads!