[ralegh]

It sounds like you mostly didn’t have the problems they were pitching for. Imagine you urgently needed a pesticide guy! Maybe you’d too annoyed to buy but someone else might not. That’s my head canon on why google makes so much from search ads, they’re advertising to people who are trying to solve that specific problem right now.

[stronglikedan]

My ex used to write car commercials, and I asked her why they all had that goofy tone and all sounded the same in a weird way. I told her that I couldn't remember a single dealership from all the commercials I'd heard, since that tone lets me filter them out. She told me that was just because I wasn't in the market for a car, and if I was, that same tone would make the car commercials stand out. Sure enough, when I was in the market for a car years later, I realized she was right!

[cqqxo4zV46cp]

Yep. HN (and similar community) conversations on this topic are always so snobby, but in reality all it points to is this community mostly wanting to buy different things. Everyone here is just as susceptible.

[allenu]

That's a great point. So much of advertising is just providing awareness, too. I may not be in the market for a particular product, but if I've heard their ads a million times, even if they're annoying, once I go to buy, I will probably give them more weight than some unknown brand, especially if it's a low stakes purchase.