Has a TV commercial ever convinced you to buy something?

[Snydley]

I think it has convinced people more than everyone would care to admit.

This. Advertisers hire psychologists to help pinpoint what is emotionally lacking in a target demographic's life, then the ad is structured to present the product as the answer to what they are missing. Think of "Calgon take me away" (targeting housewives). Cars and former cigarette ads pitch their products as ways to achieve freedom, status, etc.

The beer/alcohol ads are also really terrible. I read that because alcoholics are a sizable % of the profits of beer/liquor companies, the ads glorify what often happens to an alcoholic - for example, a woman storms out of a man's house in an ad, the man turns and smiles at his bottle of beer. Also, there are deliberate efforts to glorify drinking to then discourage family members from encouraging alcoholics to quit/enter rehab.

It's a sick business. I hate commercials!

[ginene]

Yes. York Peppermint Pattie. LOL They made the commercials look good but after tasting it, I was like Yuk. I don't like them at all.

[JoeP]

The beer/alcohol ads are also really terrible.
...
It's a sick business. I hate commercials!

The beer commercials rarely show some balding overweight guy sitting on a bar stool in a roadside bar, while Freebird cranks away in the corner for the 9000th time, and Storage Wars plays on one of the two the 20inch analog TVs propped up above the bar. They show attractive and thin 20-somethings all having a great time together, cheering on their teams, and hooking up. Because, of course, drinking beer equates with the latter.

[rennigade]

Really? You do realize almost all of them are complete and total crap, right?

Minus oxi clean. That stuff is awesome.

[disneysteve]

Minus oxi clean. That stuff is awesome.

I did say "almost all". Some of them do actually work but the vast majority are cheaply made Chinese plastic crap.

[parafly]

There are a good number of deniers in this thread, but I'm not buying it. Advertising is all about brand recognition, and it certainly works whether you want to admit it or not. Familiarity with a product is a huge driver in the decision making of a consumer.

[disneysteve]

There are a good number of deniers in this thread, but I'm not buying it. Advertising is all about brand recognition, and it certainly works whether you want to admit it or not. Familiarity with a product is a huge driver in the decision making of a consumer.

I think this is true, and I think it is more of what elessar78 said earlier. It isn't about getting you to buy now. It's about getting the name in your head so that when you do go out to buy something, there is recognition. You put that together with other information you gather from talking with friends, online research, Consumer Reports, whatever, and compile it all to make a decision. There is a reason I drive a Toyota and not a Chevy and I'm sure advertising has something to do with that.

[bennkar]

I can't think of anything I bought in the last 10 years from a commercial. Now an infomercial... I did get exercise videos (though I go them cheaper through Amazon) that I watched the infomercials many times. I am happy with them, I still use them weekly after 6 years.