Just as the title says: Have you ever clicked on an ad, knowing it was an ad, on purpose? What ad was it? Why did you click it?
Curious because I realized I have not once in my life clicked on an ad shown online on purpose. Accidentally, and being tricked into clicking the wrong thing sure; never with intent though.
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There are ads I deliberately searched for like the fun viral music videos by Berlin public transit authorities. There’s even adds I physically ordered per mail. My home state in Germany had an ad-campaign where they printed stickers with “Nice here! But were you ever in Bade -Wurrtemberg?” that you could get per mail. Vandalism got these stickers everywhere and there was even a subreddit about spotting these in weird and faraway places. I also did paste a few in interesting places.
I saw one about lonely moms available in my area and clicked because I’m an orphan.
I apologize in advance for that joke and I’m about to donate $100 to a local charity that works with orphans. If you laughed, I encourage you to do the same so we can turn my horrid, inexcusable joke into something positive.
The old spice commercials with Terry Crews were absurdly hilarious.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq2SlCja3zo&pp=ygUVdGVycnkgY3Jld3Mgb2xkIHNwaWNl
That was Crews? For real? Didn’t it used to be a different guy, or was it always him and I just never made the connection?
You’re probably thinking of Isaiah Mustafa
Yes! That’s the Old Spice guy I remember. Who came first?
Who was also really great! He was the man your man could smell like.
I have purposely clicked on ads for some video games. It isn’t worth the click even then since you end up on some marketing railroad that doesn’t lead directly to the steam page.
I was thinking “no” but, yeah, Steam Store front page. Almost every time I launch, I take a moment to see what’s good today.
But apart from that, I can’t think of a time though it’s probably happened once or twice over the years. At best, some brand’s ad looks like a good idea, so I start searching the market,and if I buy, you can be guaranteed it ended up being from a competitor.
Same for me, on occasion I’ve discovered decent games by clicking on the ads on mobile. Since I know it’s going to open up the play store, it doesn’t feel as sketchy.
However, the vast majority of the time I back out after taking a look at the game page.
Yeah. Do I buy it just from their marketing? No. Have I bought things that I found as ads? Absolutely. Advertising has a legitimate purpose.
Nope, I’ll even specifically avoid companies that I see or hear excessive ads for. When I needed to change car insurance a while back and had a list of options going, I immediately removed all the ones I could remember seeing advertising for.
Two reasons:
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I have an unhealthy hatred of advertising.
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They’re spending an absurd amount of money on digital spam as opposed to making their product/service better or cheaper. Some percentage of what you pay for in the product is to cover their advertising campaigns, and I prefer that percentage be as small as possible.
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Not clicked but the most effective advertisement I’ve ever seen was a billboard on a highway from Georgia to Ohio. It was a dark color with obnoxiously bright pink lettering in a huge, bold, sans serif font that just said PEACHES Exit 318 and that was it. I was driving with my mother and we were ready for a snack so we stopped. It was a little farm stand with various produce and we bought a box of picked-that-day, sun ripe Georgia summer peaches and they were one the best goddamn things I’ve ever eaten. We almost turned around just to get more haha.
Yeah, I click them Steam sale ads all the time.
Turns out when the ads are for things I want, at good prices and without all the nag and malware, they’re beneficial for both consumer and advertiser. Advertising used to be a useful tool for both parties.
But enshitification must continue.
Yeah I’m usually way more willing to click ads that are for something on the website I’m already on than for something somewhere else
