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Worth reading the follow-up post: http://bradfrost.com/blog/post/living-with-bullshit/ He's not against ads. He's against shitty ads that piss off customers.

Anybody know if there actually are any studies that show that these ads (1) help businesses attract clients and (2) do so without alienating more clients than they attract? Or are they all just for businesses that don't care about keeping customers anyways (e.g. weight loss fads)

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Good ads generally require more effort and investment. On some occasions, companies will try to look cheap and affordable with shoddy ads, but generally shoddy ads come from tightarse clients trying to DIY or hiring average designers, etc. Or because that's what's been tested to be more effective with their audience.

Companies often take the cheap approach because they're cautious about the return they're going to get, don't know any better, are cheap themselves and don't appreciate design.

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