For me it is when companies/services market themselves as donating to XYZ cause if I buy their product. If they want to donate, they should have already done that with the money they have. Asking me to give them profit so that they can donate is so obviously pretentious.
For me it’s branding something as “AI” as a buzzword. Almost all product marketing is full of AI hype these days.
Honestly, I’m fine with them putting the AI sticker on everything. What I have a problem with is if by AI they mean they scrape any and all data they can get their grubby little hands on.
All of them.
Right? Like…”which parts about being manipulated in order to take the money from you that you didn’t even want to have to rely on in a system that doesn’t make sense and actively hates you and uses you and then chews you up and spits you out do you not like?”
Billboards
All of them.
Yes.
Yes.
Happy cake day!
The thing is, if I want something I’ll go looking for it. At the point where I’m looking for it or something like it, I am happy to consume ads even tangentially related to that thing. If analytics marketing worked this way (showing me relevant ads when I’m shopping for something, even if it’s for something I am not actively looking for), things would be better. But ads have worked their way into the cracks of everything and that’s my problem with them.
I hate Billboards. I don’t like circulars (waste of paper and generally too much trash), I hate junk mail and I think it’s predatory. Popups (singing, flashing, scrolling when I scroll to stay on the page, tiny exit buttons, video, etc) are garbage.
I hate Billboards.
I don’t just hate them, but I’d straight up make them illegal. At least next to roads. They are specifically meant to get the attention of drivers. How can that be allowed?
I am okay with some billboards that advertise services that are relevant to motorists, such as fuel, food or lodging near the road.
I think Washington state has outlawed them except for things like safety signs and I think that’s great.
This is from like 15 years ago, so maybe it’s not true anymore.
If we used billboards for something like missing children or traffic announcements etc I’d be okay with that. But pretty much no actual ads for products. Billboards are a driving distraction and I don’t approve.
Sending my work email a calendar invite as the first communication. Just because you want to sell it doesn’t mean I want to buy it. Or even hear about it. If a calendar event is the first thing you send me, I will be the avatar of snark. My calendar is busy enough without you inserting yourself into it without my consent.
Double snark if you get upset that I didn’t accept it and reach out to find out why.
All of them except one that I call the Bill Hicks Gambit
I dislike ads that don’t indicate the functional benefits of the product and instead nake it about the product being aspirational or about my worth.
The “You’re worth getting some deliciousness” for a chocolate bar would be an example.
I’d rather know if the chocolate was ethical, the price, and sweetness level.
Lowering the prices making you believe that is a great deal when in reality the thing was overpriced to begin with.
Short of answering any questions about a product I ask, all of them.
If I want or need something, I will come looking. Anything beyond that is the market trying to solicit demand where none need exist.
So much waste could be eliminated if that just… Stopped.
Yeah, but the shareholders…
They own us
Drive-by advertising. When someone joins a forum I’m active on just to let us know about their shiny new product and doesn’t participate in any other way. Even if it’s relevant, it’s still pretty scummy.
Anything that involves deception, which unfortunately seems to be most of marketing.
I don’t mind when people just try to get their product out there, just let it be known that it exists and does X thing differently or better. I hate when they mean to deceive. Something that is intended to deceive but isn’t technically a lie is not really better than a lie, to me.
Everything has deceptive language and other types of manipulation. I used to merchandise and learned a lot. Most ads make me angry because of this. Politics is similar but that just makes me sad.
This one needs to be illegal.
Apps that you need push notifications turned on for, but also serve ads.
For example, where I live the company that does riding sharing also does all kinds of deliveries. I get notifications about all kinds of restaurant deals.
The version of Amazon we have sends all kinds of unwanted messages from sellers if you add an item from their shop to your cart. It can be turned off, but it needs to be done one by one manually.
Even the mobile wallet apps that we use here send all kinds of ads.
Like, I need notifications about payments and that is it. Stop giving me full screen popup ads each time I open the app to make a payment. It just slows me down and frustrates me.
Some android phones have the ability to long press on a notification, click on settings, and alter what kinds of notifications you receive. I’ve had a few instances like you describe, but where I’ve been able to turn off “special deals” or whatever. I think implementation of this is done by the app developer though, because I’m sure I’ve had some apps that had no useful settings. Example screenshot of Gmail settings:
This is good advice but also heavily dependent on the app developer. I’ve had the misfortune of using banking apps that only have a general notification option and they lump together important banking notifications with adverts. PITA scumbag bank
That’s a cool feature. I doubt the app would offer this as they probably do not want to allow the notifications to be turned off.
