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Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

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Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#201

Post by kaibee »

nickelcitymario wrote: post #192
kaibee wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 3. Most advertising (there are very few exceptions) fund various types of media. With the exception of state-funded media, advertising is the reason we have TV, radio, newspapers, social media, online news, YouTube, etc. Generally speaking, no one is willing to pay the full cost of the media we all consume. It's paid for by advertising. (You're welcome.) (If anyone brings up Netflix, tell me when exactly they inten…

How should they be funded instead? I assure you their editorial departments would be overjoyed if you've discovered a new business model that works without advertising.

> How should they be funded instead?

> I assure you their editorial departments would be overjoyed if you've discovered a new business model that works without advertising.

A radical take: not all businesses currently funded by advertisement should exist.

A less radical take: if the audience feels that CNN/Fox/MSNBC provide a valuable service to them, they will be willing to pay for it directly. If "the people" feel that a news service benefits society as a whole, it can be funded through taxes, like the BBC.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#202

Post by slumdev »

pascalxus wrote: post #191
slumdev wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These stories are too common. I would guess that the median* wage on HN is probably around 5x what your brother-in-law makes. And I would also guess that many of us are perfectly content with old phones, old cars, and generally reduced consumption. Hell, I buy clothes at thrift/resale shops when I find something nice that fits. What are people of means (relatively) seeing? Is it because we have more leisure time and…

These stories are so common, when I read it, I was thinking it was a precise description of my own brother. My brother who earns 6 times less than I purchases a 1000$ Samsung phone whereas I don't buy any phone at all and just use the handme-down from my wife, for 0$. It's a 5 year old iphone6 but still works Great. His other expenses are much lower though: for example, he has subsidized housing which means he pays a…

What's frightening is that advertising does work on all of us, even when we find it offensive.

I buy warehouse store house-brand laundry detergent, but if you put me on Family Feud and asked me to name a detergent brand, it'd be Tide.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#203

Post by pascalxus »

nkrisc wrote: post #4
non-entity wrote: post #2

I remember a while back seeing an ad for smart toilets. Somewhat intrigued, I googled for them and found that a good many of them cost several grand. I remember thinking "who the hell are they advertising to?" No average person is going to spend that money on a smart toilet, and I'm sure even the upper middle class has better purchases to make in that price range. Also I've noticed everything in commercials is so idy…

That stuff exists, it just costs a lot of money. Well, except for a functional family, money can't buy that. Want a house that looks clean and perfectly staged all the time? Hire a full-time cleaner to come every day and sweep, pick up, do the dishes, etc. The lie in those commercials is that their target audience can never afford something like that. So in a sense, you're right, they're showing "you" what you can ne…

it barely exists. Most houses don't look nice at all, that 's just because there's little demand for nice looking houses - it's just space people are after with lots of concrete and garages.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#204

Post by gpm »

interestica wrote: post #183
uoaei wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a "get off my lawn" sort of comment, but: Easy cars are making worse drivers. People rarely check their blind spot now because the little light on their sideview mirror lights up instead. People are less concerned about driving unsafely because their cars are thicker, heavier, and bigger than the other participants on the road. This has been especially troubling to watch develop from the bike lane, as visibil…

Aren't we seeing our first requests from manufacturers to remove sideview mirrors entirely? To be replaced by cameras and video screens.

We've been seeing those requests for awhile now, e.g. this from 2016:

https://www.oemoffhighway.com/electronics/sensors/proximity-...

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#205

Post by frenchyatwork »

manigandham wrote: post #178
apatters wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should strive to lie less to the poor about what they need to possess.

False advertising is already illegal. Other than that, there's nothing wrong with creating desire for something. It's ultimately up to the people to make their own choices.

Blatantly false advertising is illegal. There's a lot of room between "blatantly false" and "valuable and informative". That's why we have upvote and downvote mechanisms.

Also, I understand not everyone believes this, but I think there is something morally wrong with the form and scale of manipulation that modern advertisement brings.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#206

Post by nickelcitymario »

kaibee wrote: post #201
nickelcitymario wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How should they be funded instead? I assure you their editorial departments would be overjoyed if you've discovered a new business model that works without advertising.

> How should they be funded instead? > I assure you their editorial departments would be overjoyed if you've discovered a new business model that works without advertising. A radical take: not all businesses currently funded by advertisement should exist. A less radical take: if the audience feels that CNN/Fox/MSNBC provide a valuable service to them, they will be willing to pay for it directly. If "the people" feel…

So in an American context... NPR and PBS exclusively then? Because people have proven for quite a long time that they are not willing to foot the bill.

(I'm from Canada so our equivalent would be CBC and TVO.)

My guess is that if advertising was banned, the news media would become even more reliant on billionaires to keep them going, and I can't imagine that's healthy for a democracy. I know advertisers have impacted editorial decisions as well (especially really big advertisers who threaten to pull their ads), but I think that would be many times worse if a paper or TV station was entirely dependant on one or two people to stay afloat.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#207

Post by pascalxus »

kerkeslager wrote: post #85
whatshisface wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also keep your house clean and perfectly staged all the time by cleaning it yourself. It's not impossible, or even difficult.

Yes, but what are you giving up to do that?

Not much. Cleaning your house counts as excercise too. It's every bit as healthy as walking and then some because your using your whole body, and squating and moving around.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#208

Post by kaibee »

nickelcitymario wrote: post #188
kaibee wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You don't, as long as you don't mind a sudden drop in national GDP. GDP is a terrible measure of how economy feels for the median person. A sudden drop in the GDP due to the lower classes saving money as a result of not being constantly bombarded with ads for net-negative goods seems like a win to me. Banning tobacco ads also caused the GDP to drop.

Ok, so how about "as long as you don't mind another recession"?

There's two things about recessions. First, they end. Second, it does not follow that banning/severely regulating advertising to consumers would trigger another recession.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#209

Post by pascalxus »

slumdev wrote: post #202
pascalxus wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These stories are so common, when I read it, I was thinking it was a precise description of my own brother. My brother who earns 6 times less than I purchases a 1000$ Samsung phone whereas I don't buy any phone at all and just use the handme-down from my wife, for 0$. It's a 5 year old iphone6 but still works Great. His other expenses are much lower though: for example, he has subsidized housing which means he pays a…

What's frightening is that advertising does work on all of us, even when we find it offensive. I buy warehouse store house-brand laundry detergent, but if you put me on Family Feud and asked me to name a detergent brand, it'd be Tide.

Name/brand recognition doesn't mean it "worked". In order for it to have worked, you need to actually spend money on the product or cause someone else to spend money on the product.

Re: Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction

#210

Post by ohithereyou »

infogulch wrote: post #140

Advertising is an attack on your psyche. Its very existence is an assumption that you should be dissatisfied with your life, and any advertising 'tricks' (only showing happy, beautiful people using it etc, aka 95% of the content of most advertisements) beyond purely factual statements about the product are explicitly designed to hijack every possible unconscious bias in their target audience to make them want it. Sur…

Put on the expletive glasses: https://youtu.be/yjw_DuNkOUw
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