> >Is advertising WORTH the money people spend on it?
>
> When I worked for that magazine, we once did a huge reader survey. Among other things we asked whether people read the ads, and how often they bought products as a direct result.
> Most people said they read all, or most, of the ads in each issue. Well over half had, at least once, bought an advertiser's product or service as a direct result of an ad. A lot depended on the type of ad; we had a big section every issue with small, cheap black and white ads for charter boats, dive shops running trips, etc. Virtually every reader had been a customer of these advertisers, because that was one of the *reasons* they bought the magazine - they were scuba divers and wanted to find a trip to go on, right then and there.
> Far fewer people had bought big expensive products, like boats or dive gear, as a result of seeing a big colour ad. This is the "Pepsi" scenario Sam wondered about. All the company is doing is raising public awareness that it exists. If the reader later decides they want a boat or some dive gear, it's more likely that the big-advertising companies will have stuck in their mind as an option. I really, totally doubt anybody ever read an ad for a $50,000 trailer boat and decided to get one, without first having some sort of trailer-boat-owning desire in their mind to begin with.
> Of course, this is why niche magazines exist and why people advertise in them. You can be pretty sure that a large number of a diving magazine's readers already want to own a boat, so that's where you advertise. That's also why it's so hard to work out whether the ad creates the desire or merely provides the 24-hour toll-free number to fulfill it.
>
> Brunnen-"don't often buy as a result of ads, but sometimes refuse to buy as a result of ads I really hate"G

Ooh, ads I really hate! This should be a fun tangent! I'll start with those Welch's Grape Juice ads, the ones with the little kids who incessantly smack their lips (and are probably getting beaten up at the bus stop on the side).

Then there is the seemingly endless stream of TV commercials featuring phone companies accusing competing phone companies of lying, oblivious to the fact that customers are now so fed up and confused that we're seriously considering going back to tin cans on a string.

Don't even get me started on the SUV ads... "Let's pay $2 million for yet another commercial that shows a vehicle approximately the size of a tank driving through mud!"

And there's my new least favorite: the Ameritech cellular "I'm in with the in crowd" campaign. I don't WANT to be in with any "in crowd." Members of the "in crowd" at my school are barely qualified for careers as duckherds!

Cheez "Just another bitter rant" Liz