Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id RAA12579 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 9 Jul 2001 17:28:29 +0100 Subject: RE: It's an ad, ad, ad world Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2001 12:25:10 -0400 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20010709162510.AAA16433@camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.161]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hi Vincent Campbell -
>Of course all these desperate efforts from advertisers to gain our attention
>is simply more evidence that advertising doesn't work the way they'd like to
>believe it does.
Not that it don't work at all- simply knowing that something new is
available for a need that the old versions and brands didn't fill too
well is why I find myself trying recently introduced and advertised
things.
(Of course, I also have, and have always had, thanks be to my sainted
mum, who many years ago warned me of the evils of advertising, a strict
rule to boycott, in my individual and paltry way, any product whose
advertising is false, ugly, or annoying. Plus, due to sheer economic
reasons, I tend to purchase generics....)
Thus, if I'm dissatisfied with the performance of a product, I'm in
'search' mode for a replacement, and at this point, advertising will
affect me. And, tangentially, if I'm happy with a product, I might try a
variation of it- like a new version of a favorite cereal. But, in almost
all instances, I'm in a 'search' mode for these items.
And once found and enjoyed, a product becomes an object of loyalty. I
will look very carefully for a bottle of Moxie in a store, a product
which, in this day, has no advertising at all. And when I smoked
cigarettes, I waded through (yeah, I use that word as a non-name
sometimes too...) a myriad of cigarette advertising every minute of every
day, oblivious to all of them, because I would walk a mile for a Camel.
All of this meandering, while attempting to underscore Vincent's point,
may also point out that perhaps I am not your typical consumer.
- Wade
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