This is probably a hint I should take that I watch too much TV, but the commercials that come on the tube that don't sell anything are starting to really get on my nerves. There's the BP ads that tell me how many millions or billions they're investing in such and such new fuel sources and interview adverage Joes and Janes about what they think should be done (yes, I'm sure they're educated on the subject...).

Then there's the BMW etc. commercials that are advertising that they're working on fuel cell powered cars and are asking little kids questions about them. Um, ok. Once you're selling them, get back to me.

Then there's the Truth.com commercials telling me how evil tobacco corporations are and that cigarettes, believe it or not, aren't healthy. I'm pretty sure that's been known since the '60s, and I grew up in school being taught it; but thanks guys, I'm sure there's lots of people that don't know, and will stop smoking once they see your ads.

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If we don't play god, who will?-James Watson
I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.-Albert Einstein
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.-Tom Waits
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a yo-yo.-Enoch Root, The Confusion
When I was a kid, if someone brandished a shrink gun he'd get a little bit of respect!-Myron Reducto, Harvey Birdman

Many commercials don't tell you anything; they just show a music video with a logo at the end, or a short film with maybe some product placement less obvious than that of the average Hollywood blockbuster. In a lot of them, you could replace their product with the name of almost anything, the ads have so little to do with the product.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

The smoking one's are just another form of PSA (public service announcement). It's "selling" the idea to not smoke. (I hate those truth.com commercials with a passion however, but no I do not smoke).

The ones that bug me are the, "We don't make the [x] we make the [x] [y]'er" commercials for plastic. Does their job really leave them that unfufilled that they have to affirm to the world that they're doing something? I know what plastic is. I know that it's used in various products. Becuase it lends itself to those products.

Or, do they think they're manufacturers out there thinking, "We need something that has more give then wood, is lighter and cheaper than metal, and gives that nice plasticy feel. I wish there was some kind of thing like that that we could make this [x] out of."

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

I thought the meth adds showing the parents who've had the snot beaten out of them by their addicted kids were particularly amusing.

Not sure what message they were trying to pass on.

Shoot first, intervene later?

Get out of the way or get run over?

Next time, don't raid your kid's stash for your own personal use?

Was probably a commercial for plastic, which is used in hockey masks and pads, and could have prevented much of the scaring and bruising.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

Yep. Which brings me to another thing I've wondered for a long time: why are there commercials for products that have been around for a long time? When I see a commercial for Coca-Cola I don't say to myself, "Wow, I could really go for a bottle of that bubbly, brown liquid on TV. I wonder what it takes like?" No, I pick one up every few days when I'm not in the mood for tea, lemonaid etc. from the vending machine.

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If we don't play god, who will?-James Watson
I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.-Albert Einstein
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.-Tom Waits
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a yo-yo.-Enoch Root, The Confusion
When I was a kid, if someone brandished a shrink gun he'd get a little bit of respect!-Myron Reducto, Harvey Birdman

Because the makers of Product X That's Been Around For a Long Time want you to buy their product and NOT Product Y That's Been Around For a Long Time. And if you've been buying Product Y That's Been Around For a Long Time, maybe you should switch to Product X That's Been Around For a Long Time.

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Microsoft is over if you want it.

The bar has been lowered for the promotion of ATM ideas; the bar for the acceptance of ATM ideas must remain high.

The answer to the mystery is that advertising is far more about name recognition than trying to sell something specific. Why are there so many commercials for Coca Cola when everybody already knows about it? It's BECAUSE of all those ads that everybody knows about Coca Cola.

For better or worse, you are more likely to buy something from a company you've seen ads for. Is it logical? No, not really. But advertising isn't about the application of logic. It's about the application of human behavior.

Because products which are not advertised lose market share to products that are. Even if you're not going full bore on the in your face button, you've still got to keep this ADHD'd and information overloaded society reminded, or you lose out to companies that will put forth the effort.

This is their way of thumping on their corporate chests and shouting out for all to hear, "We're good corporate citizens! We don't kill kittens, we aren't melting the polar icecaps, we don't buy politicians to write laws favorable to us, ...", etc.

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Microsoft is over if you want it.

The bar has been lowered for the promotion of ATM ideas; the bar for the acceptance of ATM ideas must remain high.

When was the last time you saw a commercial for Microsoft Windows? They usually only run them when a new version comes out. Now if commercials for Ubuntu or SuSE or Red Hat/Fedora Linux ever started running with regularity, you can bet the folks in Redmond would start cranking up the FUD-machine. (FUD=Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.)
Good point. Of course this presumes that the companies put forth real effort, not (for example) the lame excuses that passed for OS/2 advertisements from IBM.

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Microsoft is over if you want it.

The bar has been lowered for the promotion of ATM ideas; the bar for the acceptance of ATM ideas must remain high.

This is probably a hint I should take that I watch too much TV, but the commercials that come on the tube that don't sell anything are starting to really get on my nerves. There's the BP ads that tell me how many millions or billions they're investing in such and such new fuel sources and interview adverage Joes and Janes about what they think should be done (yes, I'm sure they're educated on the subject...).

Then there's the BMW etc. commercials that are advertising that they're working on fuel cell powered cars and are asking little kids questions about them. Um, ok. Once you're selling them, get back to me.

What they're selling is a corporate image of being concerned about the environment. Image and public perceptions are important. They're also selling the idea that they'd be a good investment because they're looking "beyond petroleum" (to use BP's tagline). They no doubt also hope that those people who're very concerned about the environment will buy their products instead of their competitors. It's an indirect form of sales message but it happens all the time. "Buy my stuff because I care!"

That's also because the bulk of their direct sales are in the first few months of a release. More importantly, most people get their new OS when they get their new computer, and that's pretty much about all they ever do with it. The price of an OS is such that you don't need the kinds of sales figures that video games do to have a successful retail run. At $400, give or take, you'd have to sell 8 times as many $50 games to match.

Then finally, its Microsoft. The company that runs over 90% of all machines on the planet. They're ubiquitous.

Now I will grant that there may be thousands of potential investors watching, but anyone who would make investment decisions based on glitzy TV commercials, ... Well, you know what they say, a fool and his mutual funds are soon parted!

In a similar vein, here in Milwaukee (and several other cities) we have an amusing little annoyance called "Transit TV Network" that pipes in programming (and advertising!) on the buses. One ad that ran for a long time last year noted how millions of viewers see TTN for an average of about 45 minutes every day and that TTN is a great place for advertising. Only one little problem: the people with the clout to make that kind of decision wouldn't be caught dead on mass-transit!

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Microsoft is over if you want it.

The bar has been lowered for the promotion of ATM ideas; the bar for the acceptance of ATM ideas must remain high.

And like the Borg, resistance is futile. But some of us still have the will to resist. (See my sig.) And Vista may be the cancer that kills Microsoft.

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Microsoft is over if you want it.

The bar has been lowered for the promotion of ATM ideas; the bar for the acceptance of ATM ideas must remain high.

Yeah, well, whip me, beat me, call me "Hugh". Sometimes the safest place to slay the dragon is from the inside where it has trouble biting you.

Now I will grant that there may be thousands of potential investors watching, but anyone who would make investment decisions based on glitzy TV commercials, ... Well, you know what they say, a fool and his mutual funds are soon parted!

People invest for a variety of reasons - not all of them are good. Some of the advertising is also meant to counter the political demogoges who're demonizing different industries like drug and oil companies. The message is that the companies aren't as bad as the politicians are saying. Companies have every right to counter negative claims by others, especially if they believe the claims are founded more in politics than reality.

Dove's anti-advertising, advertising campaign...
YouTube
00:01:18

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