608. Commercials: The Paradoxical Effects Of A Nuisance
Usually I avoid to expose myself to commercials. While visual commercials can be avoided after a short glance, acoustic commercials are less easy to avoid. There is no earlid to shut the ears and avoid hearing.
Usually I avoid to expose myself to commercials. While visual commercials can be avoided after a short glance, acoustic commercials are less easy to avoid. There is no earlid to shut the ears and avoid hearing.
While doing dull routine chores, I often listen to easy stuff like audio books or radio shows, whatever can be found for legal downloading. Thus I got a series of very old detective radio shows made in Hollywood.
The entire series is loaded with commercials from just one company, at a rate of about four commercials per every half hour episode. Listening to the repetition of the same few commercials in a dozen of these episodes is already sufficient to make me dislike this company so much, that I would never ever consider to buy any of their products.
As far as I know, such an bombardment by commercials is quite normal on radio and TV in the USA and on private stations in other countries too.
I am really puzzled, how it is possible, that people are influenced favorably by such a nuisance and why they buy, what the commercials lure them to. Why are people so foolish as to reinforce, what they are pestered by and what they rarely like or enjoy but usually dislike?
I am wondering if growing up bombarded by commercials is another example of desensitization by the media and if people can get selectively desensitized only towards stopping to feel disturbed and annoyed, but not towards being influenced in favor of buying?
On myself, the effect of commercials is very different. Perceiving commercials as an annoyance and nuisance being exposed to them causes me to develop an aversion against the brand of the advertised product. As long as there is any no-name product, I buy it as an alternative.
Besides being a nuisance, commercials also cost a lot of money, which is paid by the customer. Whenever someone buys the expensive advertised brand instead of buying a cheaper no-name product, he contributes to the persistence of the nuisance.
If everybody would react like me and refuse to buy, what is advertised, commercials would seize to exist due to not being profitable. But too many people are fools, who are too easily taken in.
I am wondering if growing up bombarded by commercials is another example of desensitization by the media and if people can get selectively desensitized only towards stopping to feel disturbed and annoyed, but not towards being influenced in favor of buying?
On myself, the effect of commercials is very different. Perceiving commercials as an annoyance and nuisance being exposed to them causes me to develop an aversion against the brand of the advertised product. As long as there is any no-name product, I buy it as an alternative.
Besides being a nuisance, commercials also cost a lot of money, which is paid by the customer. Whenever someone buys the expensive advertised brand instead of buying a cheaper no-name product, he contributes to the persistence of the nuisance.
If everybody would react like me and refuse to buy, what is advertised, commercials would seize to exist due to not being profitable. But too many people are fools, who are too easily taken in.
