Quote:
Originally Posted by rkomar
Marketing often manipulates us as if we were little children. They wouldn't do it if it didn't work so well.
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A couple of weeks ago one of my neighbors complained to me that the toothpaste companies started putting larger holes in the tubes and that was cheating. I asked him why and he said he always runs the tube along the brush squeezing out a thick rod of toothpaste and now that the hole is bigger he's having to use more toothpaste and he's sure they did that just so he'd waste some.
I agreed with him and then pointed out that he's been wasting it all his life if that's how he does it. They show that method of putting toothpaste on the brush in commercials but it never occurred to me that people actually did that. Well, at least one, my neighbor, does. Or did.
I explained that it's just as easy to put a fixed amount of toothpaste anywhere along the brush and decide for himself how much he wants to use, which is what I do. He changed the subject but I could see the surprise in his face. He obviously never thought of that.
Marketers don't necessarily assume we're children. They assume we're not paying much attention. People who pay attention waste a lot less money.
Marketers have a little bit in common with hackers, the evil kind, in that they force us to pay attention to more than we'd really have to if they were honest. Hackers force us to pay more attention to security than we'd like to. They have different motivations but the effects have a lot in common.
Barry
Barry