Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising

You could just as easily make a blog "Things Real People Don't Say About Your App"<p>"I like the functionality, but it doesn't follow best practices."<p>or "Things Real People Don't Say About Science"<p>"These findings are compelling, but I'd like to see some corroborating studies in peer reviewed journals".<p>Any consumer facing industry is going to have a world of jargon that is inaccessible or ridiculous to the layperson. And similarly, these industries can support those who want to participate but don't have anything to add.<p>I don't see this as a jab at advertsising (although, it very well may have been intended as such) I see it as a jab at wannabes.<p>If you still don't believe me, try reading tech job postings...<p>[edit: typo]

Interesting. But I disagree with a number of them.<p>&#62; I love the copy, but it feels off brand ...<p>I remember the first time I saw a McPizza ad. It talked about how if you didn't like one kind, then you could get a different one. And it felt really strange.<p>Later I figured it out. Until then, McDonald's ads had always maintained the premise that everyone likes everything they sell.<p>&#62; If only this solution was more scalable...<p>I am constantly annoyed at the idea that "scalable" is a meaningless word. Nonsense, it is a precise, well-defined, and useful term. True, it does get misused by marketing people. But the fact is that anyone who is purchasing a large system of <i>any</i> sort, if they know what they're doing, will have some concern for scalability.<p>&#62; Finally, a place for me to share MY story!<p>Isn't this a huge reason for people going to blogging platforms?<p>On the other hand:<p>&#62; This website's music is great - turn it up!<p>Definitely. No one has ever said that, ever, in the history of the web.

I don't think that advertisers <i>want</i> consumers to consciously think these things.<p>Relevant:<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYEf8XZKlUU" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYEf8XZKlUU</a>

In the real world, <i>people hate advertising</i>.<p>This is why as an app developer I am deeply sceptical about Google's model. Okay, so the consumer saves a buck, but then you chip away at their goodwill every time you show an ad. And note, when you're showing an ad, to make it effective you have to make it intrusive, you either have to lock them out of the free functionality for a while or you need to make it eye-catching.<p>I don't know anyone that said "I'm so glad Google bought Youtube and plastered ads all over the videos".<p><i>People hate advertising</i> so much they will go out of their way to avoid it.<p>In economic terms, as an app developer the way I see it is that free+ads is really just burning up my user's good will to enrich Google. The more I annoy my customers like this, the less likely they are to recommend my app. To the extent that it is less than a zero-sum game... it's not just an even 50:50 trade-off between for pay and ad-supported.

This is a mix of half-amusing misconceptions -- "Of course I'll spend eight minutes of my life watching your branded content" -- and details that advertisers should care about -- "I love the copy, but it feels off brand". Most of the pictures fall into the latter, and are very "inside baseball". Why would you expect "real people" to talk like that, or chastise advertisers for doing so? People who buy from Amazon don't care how many servers Amazon has allocated to recommend products to them, but Amazon engineers certainly care. People searching Google don't care about the inner workings of how MapReduce distributes the work over multiple servers.<p>This website feels like a bunch of immature complaints and useless mockery.

Maybe not, but those things may still wield pretty heavy influence. Advertising is a strange world of subconscious desires and difficult-to-rationalize preferences (colors and shapes of buttons, for example).

The best ones work because they use great stock photography where the shots convey a clear message: <a href="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lexcpscLrw1qziezc.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lexcpscLrw1qziezc.jpg</a>

Marketing people say the darndest things.<p>It reminds me to this youtube video somebody posted recently on Twitter: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRDhx8Lo37E" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRDhx8Lo37E</a> It's totally viral!<p>No, I'm not related to the video or whoever made it.

In case you're wondering -- yes, the non-real people in the ad world say this shit -- all. the. time. And without irony.

"This website's music is great, turn it up!" - LMAO!<p>The funniest part is that most of this stuff actually works: on message copy, brand structure (<a href="http://bit.ly/fmyD7T" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/fmyD7T</a>), the word "solution" has sold hardware for 3 decades, buzzwords like "social currency" causing enough confusion to get your attention, focusing on intent increasing conversions/revenue, font size increasing conversions, branded apps (REI ski report, Oakley surf report), website users love introspection, stock photos increasing conversion, focusing on benefits (value prop).

<a href="http://tpdsaa.tumblr.com/post/2724755436/submitted-by-tomheg" rel="nofollow">http://tpdsaa.tumblr.com/post/2724755436/submitted-by-tomheg</a><p>By far the best.

If anyone wants to see an incredible look into how Sigmund Freud's research was turned around to manipulate people into consuming more, then Adam Curtis' excellent The Century of The Self is available to watch here: <a href="http://thoughtmaybe.com/video/the-century-of-the-self" rel="nofollow">http://thoughtmaybe.com/video/the-century-of-the-self</a><p>If you've never seen an Adam Curtis documentary before, this is a good one to start with. His style and delivery is unique among documentary filmmakers and is definitely worth a watch.

In a similar vein: <a href="http://businessguysonbusinesstrips.com/" rel="nofollow">http://businessguysonbusinesstrips.com/</a>

&#62; I wonder if my user experience is living up to their intentions<p>I think this a lot, actually.<p>&#62; Hooray, we fall into the correct segment<p>If segment means target demographic, then I think this a lot too.

I don't think the post was intended to say that advertisers actually think that people talk or even think this way, I think the post was to point out that often, marketers will have a certain perspective on their product and try to force that perspective onto its users. The reality is, users don't care about your perspective. They only care whether or not the product meets their needs.

I thought the music on pinkberry's website was pretty cool: <a href="http://www.pinkberry.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.pinkberry.com/</a>

Let's just go ahead and coin the term "lol ads".

This is by the same guy as Never Said About Restaurant Websites: <a href="http://neversaidaboutrestaurantwebsites.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://neversaidaboutrestaurantwebsites.tumblr.com/</a>

On a similar note: <a href="http://thehairpin.com/2011/01/women-laughing-alone-with-salad/" rel="nofollow">http://thehairpin.com/2011/01/women-laughing-alone-with-sala...</a><p>"Women Laughing Alone With Salad"

The address <a href="http://tpdsaa.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://tpdsaa.tumblr.com/</a> makes me think the blog was originally missing the baiting 'Real' adjective.

The use of common stock photography just makes it even better lol

where's the call to action?! I can't find the fucking call to action!

They wouldn't say it those terms, but they might very well think it or say it in other terms. You wouldn't say, "Holy shit! This call to action button is better" but you might want to click it more.