| > Did you see an ad for Hacker News? hacker news is heavily affiliated with ycombinator - and I can almost guarantee that I've seen ads/puff pieces for ycombinator over the last decade. > The pens I always buy I first bought in a stationary store, ended up liking them and now I always buy that brand. Just because you purchased a product without seeing an ad for it doesn't mean that that company doesn't have an ad spend. How did they get to that stationery store in the first place? > Farmers sell their produce to supermarkets probably without having to advertize for them Farmers likely work with a coop style organisation (who _do_ advertise heavily), or maybe have some local link. That local link is generated by having a presence in local business forums, farmers markets, local stores. Back in the day, your local butcher or greengrocer would take out full page ad in your town's newspaper to show the special offers they have on this week, nowadays I get facebook ads for my butcher. > Lots of things we use on a daily basis we never saw ads for, and yet they're sold to us by companies. Somehow. That's a strawman; the original claim was that there are companies with no advertising, not that people buy products without seeing advertising for them. |