This is like those "we are everywhere" yard signs - empty sloganeering that makes a liberal feel good, but overall just further agitates chud brain-worms.
paid for by republicans for voting rights
lol, at least the republicans are fracturing (:inshallah:) over it
Spending resources to reinforce your consumer base and/or voting bloc? Sure it does. It's rather shortsighted and wasteful - but as a bonus, your nephew gets a cushy job where he can only fuck up so much.
edit, of course, you first have to convince yourself that there is literally nothing you could better spend the resources on. Luckily, that's standard for American politics.
A consumer base is an entirely different thing from a voting bloc. For a profit-seeking business, it makes much more sense to seek to expand you customer than reinforce the people who already bought your shit.
I have no idea how on earth someone could think this is a "materialist" approach - to think that businesses intentionally waste resources on the emotions of abstract people rather than seeking to grow, which is the fundamental goal of any capitalist.
Not if you expect them to be repeat customers, which is the case more often than not. It's much cheaper to keep an existing customer than to acquire a new one.
This isn't a materialist approach, it's a materialist explanation for seemingly irrational behavior
But advertising isn't seemingly irrational
You're right, it is a rational course of action.
I just can't shake the feeling that it's balanced on a shaky premise. "Spending money on ads = even more money in sales"? It just doesn't seem like the resources and energy put in are directly proportional to the return. Especially at the scale and saturation we see today. Granted, these companies have the dough to burn, so even diminishing returns are better than none... but I can't help but see it as an overall waste of productive energy.
Yes, it does. There's an absolute fuck-ton of research indicating this. It is an entire field of study and practice.
You're entertaining a fantasy if you think it doesn't work, generally.
Yeah... I think I wanted it to be a paper tiger... the alternative doesn't bode well.