Posting OOSHIES

[bubblebooks2020]

Ooshies, those horrid plastic Woolworths things. My mum had a heap of them so I was looking at what they are selling for. People are selling the individual Ooshies for $4 or $5, up to $10 each with free postage. The only way they could make a profit on that is to send them as a large letter. I measured my Ooshies and the smallest is 25mm wide, up to 35mm, too big to send as a large letter. So 1 Ooshie would be a parcel. I imagine these sellers are sending their Ooshies in an envelope with 2 stamps. I bet Australia Post hate that, as things bigger than 2cm can get caught in their sorting machines. How do people get away with this? As a rule I don't send anything thicker than 18mm as a large letter. Anyone else selling Ooshies???

[digital*ghost]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

Luckily for me I have no children and am a self-centred sob.

I watch ads, as I watch free to air, but even the Aldi ads (which I find funny) won't convince me to support the German economy.

The advantages of being self-centred and, normally, being unaffected by advertising.

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The fact that you only mention TV commercials when talking about advertising is highly suggestive of the fact that other forms are likely a bit more effective. 

Even ads you hate will affect you, whether they sway you into a purchase of the product they are advertising or not - brains are like computers, and signals are always being sent to them, and there are always background processes going on.

Marketing tricks are fascinating, and advertising is in more places than most people realise. 

This is a great video talking about one of the more recent trends, if you've got 26 minutes to spare and don't mind a slighly smug Englishman being weird on camera for that duration .

[davewil1964]

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@countessalmirena wrote:

I consider myself, generally speaking, unaffected by advertising, but of course in actuality that can't be true. I suppose in my case it's more that I have strong passions and wants that are not mainstream, which means that mainstream advertising may not work on me... but that the minute there's a Heston Blumenthal commercial advertising some bit of kitchen tech, or Sandrine Piau advertising a breathing regime, or Pierre Deligne advertising a series of retreats designed to maximise your brain potential, or David Mitchell advertising a course on How To Release Your Inner Savage Wit, or Jonas Kaufmann advertising Lieder recitals... I will no doubt cave in.

Well, I HAVE caved in. Blumenthal's endorsement of the Breville stick blender was a factor in that particular purchase.

davewil, do you think you may possibly still be suggestible to some forms of advertising, perhaps some that's more specfiically targeted? (Obviously no children in the ads...)

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I doubt it, countess. The only time advertising would work on me would be if I was after a specific item. The advertising would then prompt me to do real research, so in that instance I could be seen as susceptible.

Celebrity endorsements generally turn me off the advertised item - the celebrities are getting well paid to endorse the product. It doesn't mean the product is as advertised or fit for purpose. it just means the company can afford to pay somebody a lot of money in the expectation of realising a profit on said outlay.

Instance George Clooney. He's a fairly good actor, but that to me doesn't mean he knows anything about American strength coffee.

And I doubt Roger Federer eats a lot of chocolate.

[davewil1964]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@davewil1964 wrote:

Luckily for me I have no children and am a self-centred sob.

I watch ads, as I watch free to air, but even the Aldi ads (which I find funny) won't convince me to support the German economy.

The advantages of being self-centred and, normally, being unaffected by advertising.

---

The fact that you only mention TV commercials when talking about advertising is highly suggestive of the fact that other forms are likely a bit more effective. 

Even ads you hate will affect you, whether they sway you into a purchase of the product they are advertising or not - brains are like computers, and signals are always being sent to them, and there are always background processes going on.

Marketing tricks are fascinating, and advertising is in more places than most people realise. 

This is a great video talking about one of the more recent trends, if you've got 26 minutes to spare and don't mind a slighly smug Englishman being weird on camera for that duration .

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We don't have billboards in this city. The ads in the newspaper are placeholders. Saturday's paper has several full-page Domayne ads. I know they were there but under pain of death I couldn't tell you what they were for.

I do admit to being susceptible to the weekly Woolies specials. But that's because my buying habits are geared towards buying staples when they are on special, so the 'ads' are more a determiner of when I buy, rather than what.

[digital*ghost]

Ads masquerade as a lot of things - news articles, for example. It's common for them to actually be sponsored advertising (Aussie media is sponsored anyway, resulting in a pretty obvious bias, but that's a whole' nother Pandora's box ). Marketing and branding is so much more than self-proclaimed advertising.

When you're at Woolies picking up the specials, the entire store is advertising to you, from the "farm fresh" labeling to the "5 star health rating" you see and take in, without ever being fully conscious of how it affects your purchase decisions. 

[davewil1964]

I know what I'm going to buy, and that's what I buy.

If I saw a '5 star health rating', even sublimally, it would make me less likely to shop there, not more. Because I am aware of the truth.

I am undoubtedly a statistical anomaly, but advertising doesn't positively affect my purchasing decisions.

[digital*ghost]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

I am undoubtedly a statistical anomaly, but advertising doesn't positively affect my purchasing decisions.

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Do you really think you're the best person to determine that, though?

You wouldn't even be aware of all the advertising you're subjected to, and your views / opinions of yourself can not be anything but subjective, so I honestly can't see how you could come to any objective conclusions about your own behaviour. 

[countessalmirena]

There are people who are more susceptible to advertising, and as a corollary, people less susceptible...

Mind you, I know and acknowledge what you say about not being aware of one's own susceptibility. It would be interesting to be part of an experiment designed to see how resistant I am to advertising.

[collect247]

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@imastawka wrote:

Yes, it's called Strike while people are stupid  the iron is hot.

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Well some people want the golden egg and the bloody goose that laid it as well lol.

Especially in my line of business,price isn't the issue it's keeping up with the demand lol.

[digital*ghost]

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@countessalmirena wrote:

There are people who are more susceptible to advertising, and as a corollary, people less susceptible...

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I know, but by the same token someone who is impervious to overt advertising isn't necessarily impervious to subversive advertising, and that is something impossible for an individual to determine about themselves. 

[countessalmirena]

Subversive ads play on the feeling of being in on a joke, or part of an elite group that is metaphorically sticking it to the big brands...

I suppose that would be especially appealing to people who are prone to believing in conspiracy theories, but also to those who pride themselves on not being part of the crowd.

The trouble with subversive ads is that they can definitely appeal to one's sense of humour, and the minute one's got that sense-of-humour-hook in one'se mouth, the advertisers are halfway there.