Whether the advertising dollars spent are worth it is another matter that needs further study but it is within the realm of possibility that advertising does not work.
Well yes, the POSSIBILITY is there... but are you really so arrogant as to think that we are all smarter than the heads of billion-dollar companies?
I would postulate that the advertising DOES work - which is why it's done...
And yes, this study about ad-blockers looks like self-serving propaganda to sell anti-ad-blocking software...
While television and movies make corporate CEOs out to be lazy and dumb, I hate to be the guy to tell you all that the majority are in fact quite hard-working and EXTREMELY intelligent... the examples on TV are the exceptions, not the rule....
Actually, I would not call it arrogance. Many execs are like horses with blinders on. They see the world from their level and at their level, the world looks much different. When something comes along that is outside of their standard model, they sometimes do not want to face it. I do not judge real execs by supposing that they are anything like FICTIONAL execs that appear in FICTIONAL dramas.
For instance, look at Kodak. They, Kodak, that is, invented the digital camera. Yet they, at that time, were making all kinds of money on film and photographic paper, both of which were cash cows for them. I don't know what went into the decision, but Kodak made the decision not to pursue the digital camera and look at what happened to them.
Shortly after the study on the Tivo was done, there was an article similar to this that appeared on Engadget. I responded to a forum thread about the article in a similar manner and said that there was evidence that advertising did not work. An individual who identified himself as an industry exec responded to my comments, I presented the evidence to him in the form of a link to the tivo study that contained their conclusions that advertising does not work, and all he could say back to me was, essentially, "I do not want to face that prospect." So why would he say that? Simply because it would mean that they would have to re-write the book and start from scratch and make a different model - and to the industry, that is terrifying.
You are certainly welcome to your opinion. However, do you find yourself clicking on ads that you see on the internet and subsequently buying that product? Do you find yourself seeing an ad on TV and then going out and buying everything you see in an ad? Formulate an answer to whether or not advertising works based on what you yourself do then have a look at these -
http://phys.org/news/2010-12-digital-video-behavior.html
http://phys.org/news/2010-05-tivo-kryptonite-advertising.html
from the second link:
“Companies are afraid of a ‘TiVo effect’ and are changing their media spending as a result,” says Fuqua Professor Carl L. Mela. “But we find no change in people’s shopping patterns when we compare a group that has TiVo with a group that doesn’t. The manufacturers’ fears seem to be overstated.”
The way that I see advertising is that it most often far overplays that value of a product. Take Progressive commercials, for instance. Consumer Reports did a study on them that appears in this month's issue, and found that Progressive, even claiming what they do, is one of the most expensive insurance companies out there. Advertising is marketing, and marketing will do everything it can to make you think that you are not good enough, you can save money, it can make you better, etc., most of it pure BS aimed at selling their products.
Like I said, PageFair is trying to create a market for their product. They are doing that by pretending to be experts in the field and artificially trying to create a market for it. There will be companies who buy into their BS. To bad for them.
