Do any of you ever avoid a thing because of the ads for it?

[BENZOOKA]

Ads don't usually worsen the image I have of the product, unless they are bad or clearly misleading and dishonest.

I do avoid certain services though, because they have ads. My country's two biggest commercial TV channels have free services on the web where you can watch plenty of interesting stuff, from a show you missed to all kinds of behind-the-scenes and other extra stuff. I tend to keep away from them or watch only something I really want because there are few second unskippable commercials before most videos. The equivalent-of-BBC has a much better similar service with generally more interesting content, in addition to no ads at all, so I use only that.

The exact same goes for radio channels. I always prefer the non-commercial channels.

 

[rayen020]

yeah, i ended up switching to Wells Fargo because the Chase sapphire card ads. yeah the problem i see these days is all the ads are for stuff i'm not going to buy anyway.

 

[waj9876]

Yes. Everything.

I tend to avoid anything I can remember seeing an advertisement for, as most advertisements never tell the truth about their product. (I was mistaken and naive when I believed companies couldn't outright lie about their products on television.)

Unless it's needed for a medical reason. At that point not getting it because of the ad could hurt someone. IE me or anyone who actually trusts me enough to buy important stuff for them.

 

[dragonswarrior]

Oh yea, advertisements make me want something less all the time. They just kinda... disgust me...

 

[BlackStar42]

As I think everyone living in the UK will agree, I will never use Go compare.

Agreed. That song is all it takes to turn me from a normal, sensible human being into a foaming--at-the-mouth psycho-killer.

Confused.com is not quite as bad, but it's getting there. With each sight of that stupid cartoon character, I get closer to murder...

This, this, over 9000 times this. Whoever was in charge of that fuck-up needs to have their genitals introduced to a food blender.

 

[loa]

I have been indifferent to halo 3 and didn't buy it in the end thanks to obnoxious gamestop ads that made it overseas thanks to blip.tv.
I don't even play online but fuck that power armor preorder crap.

Also remember this?
This almost made me not buy links awakening.

 

[The Shadowlord]

As I think everyone living in the UK will agree, I will never use Go compare.

This on so many levels.

But, I will never be convinced by an advert, other than a video game one, to purchase a product. Word of mouth from a friend or relative is the only way to get me to try new stuff. That or just sheer curiosity. Adverts annoy me so much I mentally block them out.

 

[VoidWanderer]

The movie 'Man on a Ledge'. I got so sick of the bored sounding cop saying the title I thought, well if that guy doesn't care, why should I?

And I was going to mention the Dead Space 2 'ad' campaign... I didn't touch that series after I got bored playing some of the original Dead Space.

 

[95spartans]

As I think everyone living in the UK will agree, I will never use Go compare.

For everyone who is lucky enough to have not seen it 5000 times
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_-9QFvhQWo

On the other hand we also have the compare the market/meerkat which everyone loved

 

[hutchy27]

Well I wasn't going to buy them anyways.
But there a advert for some type of tissues I can't remember the name and it had a new "man pack" out which is basically a extremely small box of tissues for the same price, and the advert basically was about how easy it was to knock it behind a cupboard, or under a chair. If I wanted to buy tissues I don't want ones where I have to crawl on the floor to bloody find them.
What the hell where they thinking with that advertisement, if you want me to pay for something I could use toilet paper for don't make a advertisement telling me how shit it is.

 

[kasperbbs]

Yeah.. Thats one of the reasons i quit watching TV, 20 minutes of whatever you are watching and then 15 minutes of crap someone is trying to sell, and every single one of these commercials are full of shit and give you only the good parts of their 'special offer', and girls singing about tampons isnt something i want to hear constantly.

OT: probably everything, if i need something i will buy it and not because someone said that this particular item is better than other items.

 

[antidonkey]

Not really avoid. For me, the products that seem to have the most annoying commercials/ads are products that I don't usually buy. However, if I find myself in a situation to buy something that has annoyed me with ads, there is a good chance I'll go with something else.

Slim Jims - I love em but hardly ever buy them since they're junk food. I pretty much have to go out of my to buy them so they stay on the list of snacks I'll consider when on a road trip.

Old Spice - The latest round of ads are strange to me. They're highly annoying yet I enjoy. The products have never been on my radar since I have sensitive skin and anything that's heavily scented causes bad things to happen to me.

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

Two more UK examples: Dolmio and Wonga.com ads. Creepy-ass puppets are no way to sell your product. (It's a shame that Dolmio sells one of the few spaghetti sauces at my local store that seems like it's more than just a bunch of sugar and water with maybe one tomato chopped up and thrown in.)

 

[Gevas]

I will never buy Barilla pasta - they used to run ads on Cartoon Network that were double the volume of the shows, and if I wasn't quick to mute they'd wake up the whole house.

Granted, I'd probably buy the cheaper store-brand anyway...

 

[Weealzabob]

As pretty much every single Brit has said, Go-compare. I dislike most of the insurance ads, but I hate one with a passion.

Confused.com is not quite as bad, but it's getting there. With each sight of that stupid cartoon character, I get closer to murder...

The thing that I find almost kind of funny about them is that their big thing right now is that you can get 1000 nectar points if you get insurance from them. So they're big advertising base right now, is not that they're really easy too use, or they're really cheap, but that I'll be able to have a £5 shop at Sainsburys.

Marketing people, how stupid are you?

 

[Epona]

I quit watching TV due to advertisements. That was 6 years ago and I still don't watch TV. I only watch the few shows I'm interested in via itunes or the net. Even then it would be like one episode a week, two or three at the most. (On Monday, I watch the latest ep of Walking Dead and Project Runway... don't give me that look...I love the dress making show). I hate commercials so much that I don't mind paying a couple bucks for episodes.

Back when I did watch TV, I used to drink a lot of soda switching between pepsi and coca cola. Price swayed my choice but so did the advertisements. I would buy the competitor's product if the commercial was really annoying.

I also plan on raising my future daughter without TV save for games or occasional movie via dvd. The TV wouldn't pick up reception for standard channels. I did read a lot when I was little, but the tv was always on in my house and I regret hours wasted watching shows I didn't even like. My parents preferred TV over paying for piano lessons or something great like that.

Same here, gave up TV for a few reasons.

- Too many ads
- Male bashing (apparently we're all incompetent and lazy and if not for the children and the wife we wouldn't be able to operate kitchen appliances)

Last night though I tuned into Fox to watch Bones, a show that I have been watching on Netflix. The ads were so bad, it seemed like you would get 3 minutes of the show and 5 minutes worth of ads. Being used to only watching TV shows on DVD and Netflix, I found this unwatchable. I did finish the episode but I remember very little because the show was so broken up between blocks of ads.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

I wont go to go daddy because the ads for it make it look like a crappy porn site from the late 90s that would be riddled with viruses.

That's exactly what I was thinking of. For quite a while, I had no idea what Go Daddy was, and I didn't want to look about for it in case it was in fact some malware-pushing POS that scraped together enough money to hire ex-porn actresses for a commercial.

OT: If the ads are like Go Daddy, where they don't actually tell you anything about the product, I will avoid it on the principle of "They don't know how to actually sell their product, therefore they don't actually know about their product."