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I don't find commercials on television and the internet to be of much use to the audience. Here's why:

Most commercials attempt to induce a little laugh out of the viewer instead of explaining why we should buy their product. A commercial strives to advertise a product, and as such it should provide the viewer with some detail on why their brand's product is better suited to the needs of the target audience than the competing brand's. I have rarely seen a commercial that genuinely provides product specifications.

Take this commercial for the 2012 Hondo CR-V as an example:


It does an excellent job of entertaining the viewer, but fails to tell us why the said product is worthy of purchase. Do the producers think so lowly of us that they assume we can't handle the 'complicated' detail? This appears to me to serve as fuel to the collective dumbing down of the general public, ignited by the arrival of the television.

But perhaps the goal of the producers is to convince the viewer that if the commercial can make them laugh, then the endorsed product is worth buying. Almost none of them are funny, however. So they fail as gags and commercials. Or is the sole purpose of commercials to shout at the viewer, "HEY, LOOK AT US, WE EXIST!"?

When searching for a decent laptop, say, one generally browses on the internet - comparing prices, verifying specifications, etc. Almost no one is tempted to buy a laptop they saw in a commercial on television without doing any internet research on it. Apart from serving as sponsors to certain shows, I just don't see what purpose commercials could possibly serve.

How useful do you think commercials are?

ads work subconsciously to make you buy the product or think about it
whether or not they are stupid doesn't matter as long as you still think about it cause then you'll still buy the product
why would advertisements fuel a large amount of projects (eg movies tv projects, sports teams, events, etc.) if they didn't work greatly?

This summarises the usefulness of commercials, if superficially. I'd consider this quite accurate.

If anything, 'metadata' also help in terms of commercials. The length of a commercial leads one to conclude how big of a company/how much the company invested in such a commercial. Investors/consumers alike can see this.

Awareness is a rather important thing. I don't mean about awareness of general ideals/movements, because the common mind is able to deduce, by his very existence alone, that such movements exist. (i.e. there has to be a feminazinism movement)

I mean about 'real' awareness of 'real' products or 'real' companies or 'real' things. Knowing about genetically modified food is one thing, but knowing about Monsanto is another.

If a commercial can bring out even the 'HEY WE EXIST!' to the viewer, it, on the very basic level, has succeeded.

Pretty much. Like Regicide said, it's a subconscious thing.

That's why they often use a catchy little theme, to make that the product you think about buying over the competition.

They try to make you familiar with a product or brand and built their image not give you a technical analysis about why their product might be better.
By showing you something threw TV etc you subconsciously start feeling some familiarity with the product so when the time to buy something comes and you see two products on the shelf that do the same job you suddenly feel better buying the one you heard so much advertizing about because even though you never actually used it you feel like you know it.

That's because commercials that try and sell me their product are boring. I'll watch a funny commercial instead of just fast forward right on through it.

Those singing commercials with catchy songs? They're the worst. Especially when those songs get in your god damn head.

I believe many commercials today try to grab the viewers' attention, especially with humor or personification. It really brings down the actual advertisement of the product. However, I like some commercials, and often watch commercials just to comment on it in my head or something.

This resembles closely to a MCAT prompt I had to write in practice. Something along the lines of: advertisements seek to prevent consumers from thinking rationally.Yes, often billions of dollars in megacorps are spent on marketing research to design the best ads. They're certainly useful for the company. But useful for consumers? Most likely not.

TV ads often seem to be created for the main purpose to grab the viewer's attention. That's all they really hope to gain from that 30 second ad. Of course, we are strictly speaking of for-profit ads and non-infomercials. To appeal to the masses' attention, it would by definition try to please the most people in their desired demography. The importance is thus not the detail, not the inherent quality of the product, but the presentation.

Some ads do seem to be pushing it. Car ads sometimes could be completely irrelevant to the actual car, and this topic might be even more interesting if people have some crazy nonsensical ads uploaded on YT or something.

Have any of you actually tried Morning Rescue?

dude morning rescue had the best worst commercials
also best side effects too and it sucks

Not useful.

One of the main reasons I stopped watching TV are commercials, and I block all Internet ads with ABP and Noscript. As simple as that. If MegaCorps don't get a couple of cents from me, then let it be.

I do watch commercials from time to time though, on YouTube; the funny and forbidden ones (you should try the Japanese ones) xD

I haven't used the tv for anything else but consoles the last few years, so I'd say not useful.

As other people have said, commercials make you think about it the product and make the product a more "legitimate" choice. Your subconscious will be all over the Tide when you're choosing between Tide and John's Laundry Detergent.

Example: Who gave a shit about Kony a year ago? No one. A few months ago during that little blip, because of one video? Everyone. Now? No one. Same basic idea, but on a lessor scale.

Consistency is the best tool, which is why all the companies that can afford to never stop advertising. It pays off.



This has nothing to do with commercials, it has to do with your personal habits, lol.

How so? As OP have specified, it has to do with the amount of information of the product itself is revealed in the commercial while keeping it interesting. Myself if I want to buy something new I research.

Advertisements can use different methods to sell products. Some use rational appeal via details and product information, some use humor, some use emotional appeal, some use exaggeration, some use a product's unique selling proposition etc.

The important thing is to make the audience remember the ad and the advertised product. Generating sales is always one of the major aims of an ad but creating word of mouth promotion from audiences helps as well.

Some people are easily influenced by commercials so they are easily bought, and if someone watches a commercial enough times it could even subconsciously affect them in some way. So there are some methods that are very sneaky.