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Advertising is actually more about providing information that the viewer did not know.

It's actually a pretty useful service y'know?

Advertising is about moving product. Just a quick perusal of advertising techniques indicates that just "providing information" is a rarely used methodology. Biased information isn't very useful anyhow.

It's about telling you about a product/service you might be interested in.

The movie trailers I watch in frontrow on OSX. They're advertising. I love them. They inform me of new movies that are coming out. Useful no?

Indeed. Putting a scantily-clad lady up on the TV screen isn't giving me any information. It's treating me like an animal, hoping my sex drive overrides the part of my brain that says "You don't really need to buy this crap".

Loud noises, cute kittens, catchy songs, scary consequences, status symbols, repetition until you can't forget the company's name if you tried. That's not any information I need.

Those things get peoples attention, and make some % remember you.

Obviously not every advert works on everyone. It'd be silly if it did. But when taken as a whole, they do work. Astoundingly well.

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