honestly, as someone who has lived in over 20 countries and on 5 continents, I would say the US has more restrained tastes in marketing than most cultures. Western Europe is generally more low key than ours though. Almost everywhere else I have been has a more aggressive sales/advertising culture.

What cultures are they not common in? I know you aren't talking about China, at least. Definitely not Japan, not most of East Asia. Probably not western Europe either, and it's pretty common in North America.

There's not a lot of new product hype in Amish communities.

You've clearly never been shopping for Amish furniture.

I was literally just watching a video the other day from an amish buggy producer. they were going over the different options and prices. 7k for the top of the line model

Streaming video doesn't seem like the most effective way to reach your Amish customers...

New barn designs maybe?

What? Yes it definitely is. Look at every single traditional market in every single European country, or in South America. You’ll find people screaming about the worlds best this and world best that. If you walk down a random street in England you see 14 of the world best beers and 7 of them will be the worlds oldest pub. Naturally all the commercials are the same.

You’d have to be a recluse to think that overhyping in sales pitches is not normal.

Haven't been to Scotland then.

Yeah, the place that proudly claims to be producer of most mediocre whiskies in the world.

To be fair no true Scotsmen would do such thing.

Marketing for Scotch is done by people in the local markets and is not representative of the true Scotsman.

I am not sure what culture you are referring to, but as someone who has lived in four very different cultures for a long time each, this is very normal, human behavior. Every tech company does this too, not just Apple. And every other company too, not just tech. And artists, and hollywood, and... humans.

must be fun to live in a culture of subtlety

What is a company that doesn't do obnoxious overhyping?

Casio

Ouch, true, underhyped even. I had this simple, stylish enough for me, just heavy enough watch, sold with 10 years battery. Not only did it take lots of damage (daily driver, never removed it but for cleaning) but the battery lasted 15 years then died a bit later. That was 100eur well spent.

Casio is a sleeper, they don't over extend and they are the best at what they do (which is to provide durable, cheap digital watches)

And graphing calculators. And audio synth. ;-)

And Citizen, maybe?

Most of Asia begs to differ, if not all of Asia.