The problem with this logic is that although I see all these Coke, etc., ads, is that (a) I rarely drink soda, and (b) when I do it's almost always the cheap store brand. The same goes for most grocery items that aren't produce or meat. I almost never buy the branded products unless I know it's better. e.g., Cascade dishwasher detergent is noticeably superior to the store brand.

It can backfire. Recently Coke pushed a cringe ad to Twitch and I have seem a lot of people in a diverse set of channels complaining about "not being able to tank the Coke ad". The impression left not always is positive for the brand. Even Jesus, the best brand ever, couldn't please everyone. But I see myself still being influenced by impressions left decades ago in my mind when I used to watch TV as a kid. And smart kids nowadays probably use an ad blocker but there wasn't much they could do to avoid it in my age.

I would be very, very surprised if this sort of subliminal effect was strong enough to make advertising worth it.

I've had some work in this field -- it is as far as the marketing teams are concerned.

One of my previous employers (international mega company) spent millions on advertisements each month, with no clear way to measure their direct impact. But they did it for the impressions.

Luigi’s Pizzeria hires three teenagers to hand out coupons to passersby. After a few weeks of flyering, one of the three turns out to be a marketing genius. Customers keep showing up with coupons distributed by this particular kid. The other two can’t make any sense of it: how does he do it? When they ask him, he explains: "I stand in the waiting area of the pizzeria."

From https://thecorrespondent.com/100/the-new-dot-com-bubble-is-h...