[delayed]

The Mere Recognition effect exists in pretty much all humans, yes--but it's completely possible to train a reflex of "if I recognize the brand name, it's the same product as the store brand next to it for $150% of the price." My family also did this when I was a kid.

Marketing ≠ Advertising ≠ Sales As a tech guy, it took me a lot longer than I like to admit to fully understand this. There is tons of money in advertising, but most of it is wasted: As the old saying goes, "I know half my advertising budget is wasted - the problem is I don't know which half!"

And for the record, the last one (sales) is what really matters. As another old saying goes, "Nothing happens until you get a purchase order."

Really aligning sales incentives with the company's goals is surprisingly rare, and seems much rarer now than it was 20 years ago becasue of digital media.

I think this is right on the nose. Advertising as it exists today is not so much about inducing customers to buy your product, as it is propaganda to convince people that your product holds a natural place in society.

When you view ads through this lens, the number of ads for things that consumers do not even directly purchase — like prescription drugs, or oil - makes a lot more sense.

there are ads for oil??

Oil companies and gas station chains? Sure, maybe not everywhere in the world but absolutely that exists.

And nowadays they're mainly trying to convince us that these companies are green and part of the zero emissions/carbon negative solution

There are ads for oil companies https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/18/the-forg...

Saudi Aramco had ads all over the world cup.

In the ads they usually call themselves an "energy" company.

I’m sure we can trust the folks whose whole business model is “we’re real good at convincing people to spend their money” when they say their product is a super effective tool that every business owner should spend money on. Right?