Advertising is an odd beast. On one hand, we need to know what variety of products are available from which retailer. Without it, it'd be a much harder forest to navigate. On the other hand, deep down we know they're manipulating us to see things the way they want, telling us things they think we want to hear. Occasionally it works splendidly, but sometimes it tries too hard and forces people to stop purchasing your product altogether.
Reddit user, Osilux, wanted to know what you just had to cut from your life because of commercials when they asked:
What product did you stop buying due to obnoxious ads?
It's Booty Paper...That's It.
"Charmin. I can't stand those obnoxious dancing bears that sing relentlessly about "hineys."
"Bears obsessed with wiping their butts. Like wtf."
Never Quite What You Expected
Giphy"Wish."
"I used to buy a few things from them but their youtube ads give me ear cancer and their products mostly suck so I gave up on them."
"My girlfriends mom bought the "lego" taj Mahal from wish for like $10. It's the really tiny piece lego knock off and according to my gf the instruction manual is like a pamphlet and entirely useless. For reference, the real lego Taj mahal is $370 and the instructions are about half an inch (1.5 cm) thick"
What's More American Than A Cheeseburger?
"Never been to a Carl's Jr because all of the ads I've seen are just women deep-throating sandwiches."
Want To Fix Your Typos? *skip ad*
"As a principle, I don't use Grammarly. Ever time I use a computer on campus of my university, their stupid ads constantly appear, and not just in YouTube ads - which really get on my nerves."
"I tried using their product when I was in secondary school, but I found that it was kind of useless unless you purchased the premium version. I'd rather rely on my own proofreading of my work and using Word spell check to find grammar and spelling mistakes."
Be Honest: Who Cleans In Heels?
"Any and all cleaning products where you see a woman in high heels acting as though cleaning is the greatest thing on earth. Men clean, too. Stop being bad."
I'd Rather Risk My Life Than Buy What You're Selling
"Progressive's Flo commercials."
"Actually all of their commercials."
"They're all so godd-mn obnoxious. Genuinely switched because of them."
WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME??
"The more you know the more you Kohls"
"That makes no sense! I didn't shop there anyway, but that slogan always pisses me off because its so damn stupid."
Well, That's Just Messy...
"Any ad for a shake/drink/liquid product that shows the product being poured into and overflowing a container and dripping down the sides, making a fucking mess, is a 100% guarantee that I will not even finish watching the ad much less buy the product."
Decide What You Are, Then Come Back To Me
"I have hated every Subway ad I have ever seen."
"Seriously, their advertising department has no idea what to do with the product. Are we healthy? hip? fun? Who the fuck knows. It's just a goddamn sandwich."
Everyone Deserves A Bowl Of Sugary Goodness
"Trix cereal."
"I think every kid in existence just wanted to see that rabbit get a bowl of cereal."
Smell Just Like A Bowl Of Potpourri
"Any. Perfume. Advert."
"Stop sexualising how we smell. Please. I want to be able to smell good without someone thinking I want a shag too."
What If She Just Ate One?
"That current commercial about Tide pods or detergent or whatever it is, with the people singing about their stains. That one lady singing to the tune to "Fur Elise" makes me want to cut my ears off."
877-CASH-NOW
"J.G. Wentworth. I haven't ever used them, but if the occasion ever arises, rest assured those stupid opera jingles will remind me who NOT to use."
"Wait until you're in a structured settlement and need cash now."
Kind Of Working In The Opposite Direction With This One...
"Swear to god if I see like 10-15 more Truth anti-smoking ads, I'm gonna pick up smoking."
Way Off Base
"Does a free app that I ditched due to ads count?"
"It was an app where you made little planets and tried to match the required orbits around a black hole/gravity source. Each level had different requirements. When you tapped to make a planet it would be a random colored dot."
"This game entertained a previously screaming 1.5 year old during half of a 5 hour car ride. With him just making planets, laughing at them move around and occasionally informing the car of what color they were. The problem was that ever 3 levels or so there was an ad. Normally would not be a problem but these were some of the most graphically violent ads I'd ever seen on a phone app. Machete's being thrown at clowns and embedding in their heads, men firing automatic rifles and blowing each other's limbs off with blood flying across the screen."
"It bamboozles me why such a tame game would run ads like that and I had to remove it."
APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD
"As soon as Head On started those commercials my friends and I stopped using it."
*crunch* *crunch* *CRUNCH*
"Kit Kat had a commercial where they used the sound of people chomping into their candy bar to the tune of their jingle. I'm extremely sensitive to the sound of people chewing so when this commercial would come on I'd have to dart for the remote before it sent me into a blind rage. Haven't eaten a kit kat since."
WE PROMISE. THESE ARE NOT ACTORS.
Giphy"Chevy "real people not actors" 🙄"
"OH MY GOD WE ARE AT A CAR STORE IN A CAR FACTORY AND OH MY GOD CARS APPEARED WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED"
What products have you stopped using for a similar reason? Let us know in the comments below.
Redditor gejiw94601 wanted to compare notes on how money can slip away so easily, so they asked:
"What's the biggest waste of money?"
Money is so easy to lose.
Just ask my best friend... vodka.
WHY?!
Idiot Facepalm GIFGiphy"Donating to rich Twitch streamers. I’ll probably never understand why people do it."
dring157
"I remember watching one guy drop $60k to Ninja. I was making 30k a year at the time, this guy drop double my salary in one stream."
IanFPS
Adulting
"Credit Card interest."
DweeblesX
"When I first go a credit card I used it only when I was short on cash, but it ended up me throwing money at stupid things because I knew I had a credit card to fall back on if I needed it."
"Now I use my card for the points, and I pay it off about every two weeks. While I'm still not great at adulting, at least I figured out this part."
boardmonkey
What about Florida?
"The $50 scratch-off lottery tickets you can buy in Iowa."
notthesedays
"I used to work for the VA lottery. I got to see the numbers, the payout was only about 20% (if that) of profit for scratch-offs. Slightly higher for the draw games. But print-n-play was almost 1-1 for payout vs profit. Don't know how it is now or how other state's payout margins are, but print-n-play is where it's at if you're gonna play anything."
DarthWeabu
Always Upgrade
adopt for sale GIF by Boomerang OfficialGiphy"Buying cheap crap you have to replace."
coinkeeper8
"My dad once told me to not spend excessive money on tools at first. Buy them for dirt cheap, and learn which tools you really need. And when they break: replace them with quality ones. Buying pro-grade stuff you don't need is wasted money."
.HarlequinSyndrom
Spending a little extra can go a long way.
Cheap doesn't often equal quality.
Flex
Costume Clothes GIF by Big Brother AustraliaGiphy"Buying ridiculously expensive clothes to flex."
PinkLemon4
"Clothes are a two-way issue. Good clothes last a long time and the price is worth it for the comfort on top of that. But some clothes are 100x the price and 1/10th the quality. So there is a fine line here."
Wdrussell1
Pay to Lose
"Pay to win games."
testthrowawayzz
"I played a lot of mobile games with in-game currencies. I have never spent a cent on these games. Why would I spend hundreds of dollars if I can enjoy the game and learn how to play even if it's slow? And many items don't even help you at the game. It's just skins or titles that only show other players how stupid you were to pay for a free app."
Pintermarc
And Silver?
"Gold Food, or more accurately food that is covered in something called gold leaf. In my eyes, food is worth buying if they provide a great amount of nutrition for considerably good prices. After all, you probably avoid paying 50 million dollars just to buy a few molecules that are useless to your health and needs."
"And then there's gold leaf food, sure the food looks fancy but at the cost of a ludicrous amount of money! And with the gold having no usable nutrients at all, it is just not worth it to buy such expensive food for a relatively small amount of nutrients."
"For instance, Industry Kitchen (hopefully that's the name of the place) in NYC serves a pizza with a gold leaf covering for a whopping price of $2000. While at my home country which is Indonesia, Domino's serves an American Classic Cheeseburger Pizza (IDK that's a thing) which is the most expensive pizza I could find on the website costs around $7 which is just baffling to me."
ScopeRicrit
Pretty Boom
"Fireworks, I love them, but it's like $50 per second for the good ones."
endisnigh-ish
"Yeah, I end up spending probably $300 each summer buying fountains and batteries and helicopters and cardboard tanks and sh*t--none of the big professional skyrockets. It's absurd, I'll be the first to admit."
"But it's fun!"
-RadarRanger-
Just Elope
"Weddings."
"Crazy expensive day. Guaranteed at least one relative will kick up a stink. Massive pressure to be The Happiest Day of Your Life. Everything doubles in cost if you say it's for a wedding (dress, suit, cake, venue) Just do the quick registry office paperwork, have a surprise party, and run away for a long honeymoon with the money you saved."
PinchAssault52
Roll of the Dice
Card Game Poker GIFGiphy"Gambling for sure."
snazyfragz
"I live in a small town where a casino is the big attraction They've had numerous people crap and pee themselves because they didn't wanna get up from the slots because 'it's just about to pay out.'"
11BREWER
Gambling is the greatest way to lose money.
Addiction will take everything if you let it.
