[dsacco]

> Day-to-day spending also is not swayed by advertisements. There are real reasons behind the choices I make, and those ideas, opinions and motivations don't source their information from advertisers. I'm not charmed by entreaties that pander to my niche demographic.

Two thoughts:

1. I doubt you have enough self-awareness about your unconscious product reasoning (and more importantly, which products you decide to reason about) to be capable of asserting advertising doesn’t “work” on you. Abstractly speaking, if you buy toilet paper, and you don’t search for the the most efficiently priced toilet paper with respect to your criteria, advertising has “worked” on you. Just because you don’t buy the mega brand doesn’t mean it hasn’t worked on you. Buying Kirkland from Costco also implies the advertising has worked (for example).

2. That you believe you are resistant to advertising places you in a predictable demographic that, like all demographics, can be successfully targeted without it being spotted as advertising. Advertising generalizes to delivering a feeling of trust, familiarity and ingroup agreement; which brands do you buy consistently? Which do you trust? Did you do an empirical, feature-driven search for all of the products from these brands? Does any brand stand out? Do you switch brands to extremely similar, essentially indistinguishable products when there are minute changes in price? If not, why?

I think you need to broaden your perspective on what an advertiser considers “working” to mean for an ad campaign, and what they count as a win. Advertising encompasses incredibly more than just click-to-buy decisions, and I think it would be virtually impossible for you to honestly separate confirmation bias from your perception of how impression-optimized advertisements have impacted you. Your “niche demographic” is not the only demographic you fit into, and if anything being part of a niche demographic makes you (very nearly definitionally) easier to target for campaigns.

[FridgeSeal]

Ah yes the old "akshually advertising does work on you", a similar argument used by the fervently religious in discussions: "You'll see I'm right in the afterlife".

At some point, if one needs to buy toilet paper, one needs to buy something. Just because you ended up buying one doesn't mean that the one you bought was due to advertising. Advertising doesn't become the reason for a purchase over availability, economic value, etc just by virtue of existing.

> 2. That you believe you are resistant to advertising places you in a predictable demographic that, like all demographics, can be successfully targeted without it being spotted as advertising.

Yes, the "I'd like to be left the fuck alone to make my own decisions" category, that advertising, despite it's apparent infinite wisdom still hasn't managed to figure out.

> Did you do an empirical, feature-driven search for all of the products from these brands? Does any brand stand out?

This is not a feature of advertising. This is a feature of product quality/price/feature-set etc. Advertising is independent of this and will happily lie you to in order to make you buy product x instead of y. To suggest that you actually bought product x instead of y is due to the effect of the advertising and not literally any other factor is disingenuous.

> 1. I doubt you have enough self-awareness about your unconscious product reasoning

This is a bit of a broad and unfair statement, it doesn't require too much concerted critical thinking to be aware of the tactics that advertisers use. Even if you're not fully immune from them, being aware of them can significantly reduce their effectiveness and restore a good degree of agency to you.

[isostatic]

Why did you choose brand a over brand b? Price (brand a is cheaper - but is that unit cost, price per sheet, price per use)? Availability (b isn't in the shop)? Ease (b was on the top shelf, a was on the middle)?

I avoid adverts as much as possible, but I'm not naive that they don't have an affect on me, or that I even realise I'm being subjected to adverts. just looking out of the plane window I can see wall to wall Hsbc adverts, they were also on the jetway. HSBC spend a lot of money to say "they aren't going any where", "they're a globally trusted brand", etc.

I don't bank with HSBC, but I don't need to be persuaded by those adverts - if I am asked about a bank, HSBC is one of the first that springs to mind, burnt into my subconscious. That may be worth something in the future. En mass it certainly is.

[FridgeSeal]

Brand B was recycled paper, A is not. Both are available and B is slightly cheaper. B wins. Neither of them advertised to me, the decision was made based on product quality and features, not advertising.

I just got back from an overseas holiday, so I too saw a lot of HSBC ads at airports. But I also actively disregarded them, of someone asked me for a bank, they would not spring to mind. Even moreso because I was reading a thread on Reddit the other day where someone was talking about how HSBC's strategy was to advertise primarily at airports even if they didn't operate in that country because it makes people think they're a global brand (even when and where they're not). So now, if I do think about HSBC the first thing that pops into my head is how their outdoor advertising is built on a lie.