The greatest trick of advertisements is to convince you that you’re not affected by them.
this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2025
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Autism
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heh the greatest trick of the devil was to convince people that he doesn't ex... wait.....
ads are the.....?
shhhh don't say it out loud! they'll come after you!
Advertising is subversive. How do you pick what to buy when you buy “when needed”. You may be less susceptible to excessive consumerism - no wall of funko pops and anime character figures - but that doesn’t mean you select the products you buy because of some kind of advertising. Whether that’s fake “rating” blogs/websites that “evaluate” products based on who pays them, reading reviews that have been botted, responding to logo design, etc
Advertisements generally work on the people they are targeted to. Most advertisements are not targeted at you.
Off the top of your head, name a VPN company.
This is the way it works. The brand name gets lodged into your psyche before you're in that market.
How do they account for users like me, though? Or are we so few that they don't care?
If I see enough adverts for something I mentally add it to a list of things I'll never use.
For example I use Windscribe, because when I needed a VPN I did some research on what would be best for me, and I automatically disqualified Nordvpn because of how prevalent their ads are. I've never seen a Windscribe advert, but when I looked for the product, there they were.
You do need some amount of marketing otherwise nobody will know your product exists at all, but forcing ads into people's faces in uncouth ways is scummy (e.g. animated adverts on pages when I'm trying to read the page content, I can't read it until I get rid of the ad, it hard locks my brain's focus), that's where I usually draw the line.
Imagine your ISP sends you a copyright violation notice and threatens to cut your Internet if you don't delete some file and promise not to do it again. In that moment of panic, you are not your smartest self and will pick the first VPN that comes to mind.
The list of boycotted brands you cultivate will still work in their favor under the right circumstances. If you get injured in an accident and are desperate for a lawyer, you will remember that ______ and ____ is the way to go. Call -_.
You get ads targeted at you differently.
also the name Raid Shadow Legends have been shoved into people's brain against their will.
Wow, someone needs to hire you to explain stuff. I've seen people explain how ads work before, but this is the first time someone made me think "oh shit they're actually working." I mean I thought of Nord VPN even though I use Proton what the hell?
Fortinet, Cisco, Juniper
Private Internet access and mullvad
I don't know any VPN company as of now. One of things I think of using but is afraid of the change.
Heard a lot about Mullvad in Lemmy tho, kudos to their marketing (maybe).
It maybe work less on you but it probably still work well on you. Advertisement isn't as much about product anymore, it's about brand. A logo seems innofensive but shown enough it become more familiar to you increasing the chance you choose this brand when you buy a product.
Another type of ad is the "cool people do this" kind with the objective to create a need and make you buy a product of this type. Even if you don't choose the brand that advertised it you still enter the market. If you care less about the judgement of other this kind of ad probably work less, if you're desperate for bonds maybe it work better so I don't really know how different it can be among autistics.
In any case my advice would be to not let your guard down, that's exactly what the seller want. Use an adblocker, mute the tv during adds, don't look at the advertising poster when you walk or drive outside. You could even talk about this to your mayor.
Hmm, you are right. Maybe Linux sold to me well with its catchy logo
Ah, but when you go out to buy something you need how do you choose which product of a category to buy?
Price to 'value', weight/size, performance, reviews, etc.
How else would you do it?
Most people will do that but within the confinement of "I've used/heard of this brand"
Used before is way different than heard of. If I've used it before and liked it, sure I will favor that brand based on personal exp. If I didn't like it, of course I avoid it.
If I've only heard of it, that means absolutely nothing to me and I'm immediately skeptical. If someone has told me a brand is good, I'd consider it an informal review and it holds a small amount of weight.
Functionally, the brand is only useful for identifying and matching the products to the reviews and research I'd done on it, it's just a label.
If I'm going to buy say, a rain jacket, I haven't a clue what brands exist at high quality within my budget range, that's what the research is for.
Granted I won't buy a product from a brand that is completely absent from all of my research - reviews, online discussions, etc (could be Chinese rubbish or rebranded crap etc).
I'll find a brand that seems to be consistently good quality based on all the metrics that pop up in my research that best fit my needs, and add them to my short list if they have a product that meets my criteria.
But they don't need to advertise to me to accomplish any of that, they just need to be good enough to pop up favourably in my research locations.
Of course, reviews, discussion, videos, etc can all be faked, one just needs to sniff these things out where possible and take a leap of faith. If we choose not to believe anything we see or hear because technically it might be fake, we'll never get anything done, haha.
Good solid critical thinking does 98% of the work and has never steered me wrong.
Whatever’s on sale that day at the grocery store unless it’s store brand toilet paper because I bought like a 48 pack of that once and it was truly awful. Like wiping with pie crust. So in that case I unfortunately go with a brand that advertises but, to their credit, it doesn’t flake apart into shreds just while bring transported from the pantry to the bathroom
I relate but I think it’s also because I spite capitalism so much. The more I see something advertised, the more I hate the good/less likely I am to buy it. Also I am very minimalist and buy very little anyway …
I’m Lovin’ It
Now what burger are you thinking of.
Whataburger
There are only handful of burger brands which are available nearby after searching, and I go to whichever place that offers good ones.
So, seeing the phrase "I'm loving it" did not 8n any manner put a thought of "hamburger" in your head?
Idk, OP mentioning burger put a thought of hamburger in my head already.
If this is the post you're referring to, it was specifically just about dev/software tools, but the post title made it sound more general
It's like with propaganda. It's not only about influencing what you think but also what you think others think.
I don't think I am immune to propaganda, but how do ads affect what I think others think.
Sadly nobody is immune to it. You may think you are but the propaganda machine has gotten extremely efficient at working and the littlest things you don't realize can over time change your views on specific things without you realizing it.
I'm telling y'all, it's sabotage