For me it is when companies/services market themselves as donating to XYZ cause if I buy their product. If they want to donate, they should have already done that with the money they have. Asking me to give them profit so that they can donate is so obviously pretentious.
Stealing my time for nothing in return. Watching an ad to get content is a transaction. The door to door guy, or the guy who interrupts my shopping with “I’m not selling anything just asking you some questions” is annoying and I’m never going to use their product. The ones that persist after being told “not interested” can jump off a cliff.
I found a real easy approach to any undesired solicitation - zero contact, no reaction. Works on telemarketers, panhandlers, salespeople etc.
I have no shame about ghosting you publicly when the only thing you’re after is my money. If I’m in the home generator store, sure thing bro talk to me about my home power needs. If I’m walking out the supermarket and you slide around a booth to “help me keep my home safe during unrest” nah fam you can fuck yourself.
Cold open sales is parallel to pick-up “artists” imo. You want the transactional outcome for yourself, and my consent is the only thing you’re concerned about taking care of.
There’s a pest control salesman who goes door to door every year, who I can’t stand. Not only does he say outright incorrect things, but he can’t take no for an answer. Every polite refusal turns into, “You know what, we can knock 80 bucks off that right now” or “How about we just make the first month free.”
Next time he comes knocking, I’m going to be immediately upfront. I’m not interested in paying money to spray poison, that will end up in the canal and the river, to kill bugs that birds and frogs and bats could be eating.
Next one that comes to the door, I’m telling him he can have $20 if he humanely escorts the Latrodectus Hesperus living in our cupboard out. Let’s see if he has any tricks up his sleeve other than poison.
All of them. Make “banning advertising” an election platform, I’ll vote for you. Ban billboards and other forms of commercial advertising everywhere. Advertising works, nobody denies that. If you see enough ads, on average, your mind will be changed. By allowing advertising to exist, we are sanctioning widespread mind control. It sounds crazy when you say it that way, but it’s true. Advertising does not benefit the average person, it makes them buy stuff they have no native desire for. Advertising only benefits advertising agencies and their clients.
Let word-of-mouth and genuine desire for a good or service drive purchases of that good or service, not advertising, and you’ll end up with a more efficient economy where our consumer choices better invest in our shared prosperity and future.
Advertising works, nobody denies that. If you see enough ads, on average, your mind will be changed.
Can you point to scientific literature that does prove this statement?
Not what you’re asking for, but it’s the same core principle as irony poisoning, I think. And, I know that shit is real, because it’s happened to me. It was kind of a core life lesson to me to watch what I consume.
This one needs to be illegal.
Apps that you need push notifications turned on for, but also serve ads.
For example, where I live the company that does riding sharing also does all kinds of deliveries. I get notifications about all kinds of restaurant deals.
The version of Amazon we have sends all kinds of unwanted messages from sellers if you add an item from their shop to your cart. It can be turned off, but it needs to be done one by one manually.
Even the mobile wallet apps that we use here send all kinds of ads.
Like, I need notifications about payments and that is it. Stop giving me full screen popup ads each time I open the app to make a payment. It just slows me down and frustrates me.
Some android phones have the ability to long press on a notification, click on settings, and alter what kinds of notifications you receive. I’ve had a few instances like you describe, but where I’ve been able to turn off “special deals” or whatever. I think implementation of this is done by the app developer though, because I’m sure I’ve had some apps that had no useful settings. Example screenshot of Gmail settings:
That’s a cool feature. I doubt the app would offer this as they probably do not want to allow the notifications to be turned off.
All of them. I dislike every marketing tactic ever invented.
All of them.
Right? Like…”which parts about being manipulated in order to take the money from you that you didn’t even want to have to rely on in a system that doesn’t make sense and actively hates you and uses you and then chews you up and spits you out do you not like?”
There’s this ad I keep seeing that I really despise. It’s for teeth-whitening toothpaste. The actress is wearing a white coat then holds up a tissue to her teeth, lamenting that her sparkling white teeth are ‘still yellow’
They cut away to teach you how toothpaste works, because surely you’ve never heard of this newfangled thing, and when they cut back she’s no longer wearing her white coat and says how much whiter her teeth are.
It’s transparently obvious that the wardrobe and tissue are just to give you something whiter to look at. But like… your teeth aren’t supposed to be freakishly white. It’s just something that Big Toothpaste wants you to feel bad about the way your body is. Also, using whitening toothpaste when you don’t need it can damage your enamel and cause you long term problems.
Yes I hate teeth whitening in general. I really dislike that unnatural shade of white. What gets me of their advertising methods is that they usually prey on people’s insecurities based on the myth that the whiter your teeth the healthier they must be.
This isn’t complete bunk. The new indicator of wealth is healthy teeth. Poor kids don’t get to go to the dentist regularly, so have more problems later on; rich kids get regular cleanings to prevent buildup, and have much healthier teeth.
The trick was making us equate white-white teeth with healthy teeth, even though there’s a shade of ‘white’ that is just healthy, clean enamel with no plaque buildup but isn’t true white.
I only retained this when I heard it as I was a poor kid and, wow, am I glad I have a good job as our dental care is still mercenary as fuck.
Short of answering any questions about a product I ask, all of them.
If I want or need something, I will come looking. Anything beyond that is the market trying to solicit demand where none need exist.
So much waste could be eliminated if that just… Stopped.
On a related note, when shops let you “donate” stuff you buy at their store to a food bank.
“Pay us to not let the homeless starve.”
I’m gonna go the other way. The only marketing I acknowledge is factual reporting of design features that make a product suitable for the intended task. Anything else is dishonest and manipulative.
Think of Chris Cooper’s character from Interstate 50. Any marketing claim must be specific, measurable, verifiable, and accurate.
For me it’s branding something as “AI” as a buzzword. Almost all product marketing is full of AI hype these days.
Honestly, I’m fine with them putting the AI sticker on everything. What I have a problem with is if by AI they mean they scrape any and all data they can get their grubby little hands on.
Asking me to give them profit so that they can donate is so obviously pretentious.
It’s a way for them to have their cake and eat it too.
They use the desire of people to buy something they want and think they did a good thing at the same time, while the business will just take that money to donate to a non-profit (helping their public image) while writing off a part of it on their tax records (helping their bottom line).
They’re not doing this from the bottom of their heart, it’s just a cost of doing business for gaining some PR karma.
All of them…
Detaching basic features from an existing free product and making people pay a subscription for it.
Aka sso.tax
Anything that involves deception, which unfortunately seems to be most of marketing.
I don’t mind when people just try to get their product out there, just let it be known that it exists and does X thing differently or better. I hate when they mean to deceive. Something that is intended to deceive but isn’t technically a lie is not really better than a lie, to me.
Honestly, sometimes when I can’t sleep, watching eSports helps (especially Starcraft II). IDK why, but put on a super chill caster like Wardii and I’m out in 20 minutes.
Having some loud, disruptive ad punch through my ad blocker and try to tell me about Liberty Mutual when I’ve almost dozed off is close to the most rage inducing experience imaginable. With Youtube now working to inject adds directly into video streams, I’m actually anxious about the future of my best sleep aid.