Why is advertising so annoying?
This is the question posed in a recent Youtube video series called the “School of Life”. This is to ask, why people tend to avoid advertisements if indeed advertisers' purpose is simply to make us aware and inform us of a product or service? Shouldn't this be a helpful thing?
The first reason is that they are not just trying to make us aware, or even to persuade us rationally. In almost every case, they are trying to manipulate us emotionally into purchasing something we might not otherwise. Some tactics include humour, sex appeal or celebrity endorsement.
However, on top of this, ads frequently ambush or surprise where we don't expect them. Perhaps, this is because it makes them more memorable, but mostly it's to grab our attention and avoid being ignored. To make matters even worse, advertising is extremely persistent and repetitive. In the end, what you have is something akin to a person who is constantly trying to get you to do something you don't want to do, who pops up when you least expect it and doesn't stop even when you show no interest. In the School of Life video, it is compared to children who continually nag and whine their parents until they get a new toy or game. All these tactics can be very effective in getting someone to capitulate and do what you want, but they are not the qualities that engender friendship or trust.
The presenter of the short video, Alain de Botton, then imagines whether we could have a much better world in which we received advertising for things that we might really need or want. Currently we avoid providing information to advertisers because of our distrust. This leads to a vicious circle of ever increasing pestering, badgering and snooping with pop-ups and tracking cookies. This leads us to use further counter-measures like ad-blocking, filtering or simply muting the sound if it's TV.
Check out the video. It's not so long (4 minutes) and good listening practice. You can turn on subtitles to confirm what you hear.
What do you think is a good solution? What do you think about the solution suggested in the video?