Comment by thesash | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thesash | Hacker News Reader

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The consumer packaged goods industry generates two TRILLION dollars a year in the US, by selling us things we don't think we need, through branding and marketing. Bottled water is an entire industry that was built on selling us plastic bottles filled with an abundantly free resource by convincing us we needed it through, you guessed it: advertising.

There are many, many industries that rely on brand awareness to sell there goods. There is an amazing quote which I unfortunately couldn't find that goes something like this:

  "In order to reach the small segment of the population 
  that is interested in buying Mercedes, everyone in the
  world must know what our brand stands for."

Ads with intent drive clear, immediate ROI, but they can only ever capture the segment of the market that know what they want. Display ads on the web may not be the future of advertising, but it isn't going to go away, even if cable TV died tomorrow. In fact, the very fact that this discussion keeps coming up makes it pretty clear that there is a huge opportunity to innovate in this market. Maybe the advice should be: don't build a business that runs on static display ads, do try to find an innovative ad model that engages users and works for brands. Ads, for example, like the interactive old spice ad on vimeo. Immediate ROI? No. Massive brand awareness? Absolutely.

http://vimeo.com/47875656

The consumer packaged goods industry generates two TRILLION dollars a year in the US, by selling us things we don't think we need

This is kind of misleading.

We certainly do need a substantial portion of that two trillion dollars worth of consumer packaged goods.

Perhaps not all of it - the electric powered corn buttering gadget is not a "fundamental need" - but things like kleenex, towels, soap are pretty basic, no?

I saw that quote on Spent by Geoffrey Miller. It's about conspicuous consumption. That is something that I stand against, as does he. He provides some sensible alternatives (and some that don't make any sense). I still recommend the book.

> Bottled water is an entire industry that was built on selling us plastic bottles filled with an abundantly free resource by convincing us we needed it through, you guessed it: advertising.

I drank the bottle of water on my nightstand when I woke up this morning in my hotel. I was a bit hungover and feeling lazy. Advertising had nothing to do with it. I wanted the bottle of water to make my morning a little easier.

Yes, people buy things they want but don't need! It's almost like there's more to life than the raw inputs the human body requires.

>> I wanted the bottle of water to make my morning a little easier.

No, you merely wanted water. It could have as easily been a pitcher and glass and would have satisfied the want.

> It could have as easily been a pitcher and glass and would have satisfied the want.

Actually, no it wouldn't. If you read closely, my want was not water. I'd say my want was closer to convenience. I explicitly did not want to pour a glass of water, my other (free) option.

I wanted to chug down 16 ounces of clean H2O and roll over. Which I did. And it was awesome. Well worth the 2 bucks the hotel is going to charge me. In fact... I'm probably going to make the same decision tomorrow morning. Explain that!

Edit: waiting on a cab, so I'll be even more explicit. This morning I woke up, exhausted after a week of travel and a night of whiskey. Ad usual, a bit confused and not eager at all for my last day of work here in California before I fly home tomorrow to NYC. definitely going to sleep in another half hour at least. I know I need water but I don't even want to move. I can walk to the bathroom but at that point I might as well get up for the day. I look over: cheapo bottled water. The kind where the plastic is so thin you start to crush the bottle without trying. That decision takes less than a second: I grab it, unscrew the smaller-than-a-soda-cap cap and literally squeeze the entire bottle's worth down my throat in under 5, 10 seconds. Sated, I turned onto my stomach, buried my face in a pillow, and welcomed the sandman.

No way a pitcher and glass beats that. Even for free.

And unscrewing a cap (and breaking the seal in your ever-so-weakened and pathetic state) is more convenient? You're deluding yourself in order to make an argument you can't actually substantiate.

I always have water next to my bed when I sleep. Usually tap water, but in a bottle with a screw cap. I can open and close it without opening my eyes, and it won't spill.

Unscrewing the cap is a tenth of a second I don't think about. Pouring a glass of water in bed and trying not to spill it on the table and floor, then drinking that glass, then re-pouring more water and drinking more, all while worrying about spilling it all over my pathetic self in bed, sounds a lot less convenient. If I spill it on myself, I have to get out of bed. I'm not going to sit there in a pool of water. These are things that have happened to me that I'd like to avoid.

Since the $2 isn't much at all to me, that's all the more reason to treat myself to the bottle of water. I don't call that delusion, I call it not sweating the small stuff and living in the moment. Feel free to call it conspicuous consumption, but I'm not sure who you think I'm trying to impress with this story. I'm not sure such a person exists.

You're the one who thinks that my blowing a couple bucks for a nice moment in the morning is evidence of some kind of bane on society. Justify that, why don't you? I've given you my entire thought process.

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