Anecdotal, but I’ve boycotted products or stores because of annoying ads in the past. And even clever or entertaining ads eventually get annoying if they are shown too much.
I block most ads these days, so longer contribute to the negative ad returns like I used to, but I am curious about how many others like me are out there.
My spouse is like that; they’re so anti-advertising that they’ll close their mobile games once the ad. appears and re-open the game, just to not watch it.
And they’re definitely the type to stop buying from a company because the ad.s were annoying.
Anyone from Canada in the late 90s/early 00s might remember that Canadian Tire guy. His character was kinda a personified commercial, he was just so enthusiastic about the Canadian Tire product that could help this common problem that it was off putting. Even though those windshield wipers that were one curved piece that would conform to the shape of your windshield looked like exactly what I wanted, I didn’t step foot in a Canadian Tire until years after they got rid of him.
That’s the one kind of advertisement I think is acceptable. “Here’s a product you probably didn’t know existed.” That’s actually informative. Be straight up with me, you have products I might need, tell me what they are and we’re done.
The ones that are sneakily trying to make it so I trust a brand with music and high production values are the ones that are disturbing to me. I feel like most companies make both shit products and some good products too. These corporations are massive so it’s not like it’s just one extremely qualified team of people making all of their products. Different divisions different quality of products, so the brand is meaningless. But somehow branding is the big focus of marketing now and it’s all a meaningless waste of time.
