this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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I imagine it's because their use is evident (no need to advertise what they do, since they've been common in households for the past half century), and they've likely peaked in terms of function. You can't really improve much beyond what we have now, the last great advancement in the microwave was probably the turntable for consumer units, and the moving fields that commercial units have. You're limited in power output by the outlet you plug it into, so "faster cooking" is a no-go (unless you stuck a 240v plug on the end, and good luck getting that to fly with your average consumer in the US, we already find those annoyingly sparse for dryers and ovens and such) -- what else can you innovate to differentiate your microwave from every other microwave on the market?
One could almost say the same thing about cars. But there are ads for those everywhere.
But similarly, you never see an ad for a stove/oven anymore.
I think you’ll occasionally see an ad for a fridge or washer/dryer but it’s usually actually an ad for a local appliance retailer. The manufacturers themselves don’t seem to make ads.
It's because demand is inelastic. Every household needs one. No more, no less.
When I was a kid we had three...
boiler
One was broken, the other was on the countertop, and the third was stored in the attic equivalent, but we had three!