this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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That's easy: never make unconscious purchase decisions. Consciously set a list of what you want, and follow it. If you know what you want, there is very rarely more than one product that comes closer to meeting the requirements, whether they be objectively measurable, more abstract like quality and trust, or as simple as price. Generally sellers try to find a distinguishing niche, and stick to it.
Of course this requires knowing and caring about what you're purchasing. If you have enough money to just go by "ooh, shiny!", then sure, ads can have an influence.
Yes, but how do you become aware of product you consciously want?
By concatenating words describing concepts I'd like to have together. For example:
...and so on. Just use your imagination.
Just not the unconscious parts of your imagination. Keep it on the straight and barrow here people.
The unconscious is a myth anyway. Freud was a well-known Nazi, as anyone who’s not an unhinged right-winger already knows.
We’re making sense here guys. Let’s keep this discussion going. This is really coherent stuff.
That's not the issue, the less you care about the ad itself the more likely you are to process it's message subcaughously and we simply don't have the energy actively observe all the ads we are bombarded with...
Subconscious messages are irrelevant if you make your purchase decisions consciously.
"Do you like to drive?"... they can show me beautiful landscapes with nice music and end it with the car maker's logo all they want, I'm not going to buy a car because I saw the ad, it smells nice, or "has USB"; those are irrelevant parameters that get cut off by my conscious list.
How about those fun fun sweets, foods, whatever, kids like so much these days? I was a kid once, I know I didn't like all the stuff advertised on TV.
Want to sell me some insurance, telephony, banking, or any other kind of subscription? Good luck showing me people having fun, vacationing or scoring a date, I'm still going to get an online comparator, tick off the things I don't like, and then compare it to the results of another one or two. Even better luck trying to robocall me; "No, thank you, I'm not interested", talk to the hand ✋, number blocked.
Same for food (what's the nutritional list, expiry date, and price/quantity?), hardware (is it the cheapest option meeting my requirements? how easy is it to repair?), clothing (no, I don't care about being a billboard for your brand), and so on.
If you don't think you have the bandwidth to watch ads consciously, there are ad blockers for that. For all the rest, there is spending some more time the first time you are about to buy a product you haven't before.
I am tickled fucking pink to see someone unironically advocating for living life free of the shackles of the unconscious. I’m dying 😂
Missing a spot while wiping your ass, is unconscious. Crossing the street without watching for traffic, is suicidal.
You tell me which shackles are you free of.
Not the influence of my unconscious on my decisions, that’s for sure.
I copy pasted that because I have two basically identical arguments rn, just wanted to add that I do have a ad blocker but that doesn't work everywhere ads are shown, especially IRL...
It's not about smart or stupid, ads use various mechanisms to manipulate you and noone is completely immune to them, when you spend your money it's too late already because you have bias no matter how slight it is and once you are presented with two idendically good products that bias starts to show. Here is a great German video on the topic, I don't know if the subtitles are usable but it's far too big and complex to explain in a single comment and I don't care to try rn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etkeGVNRVYA
You seem to have them both with me, so no need 😉
Oh yeah what could be easier? Just stop making unconscious decisions!