I am not a cyclist, I am an ad man

[Deleted member 26715]

Tv stations can digitally alter, in real time the adverts that you see around the perimeter of football pitches. I wonder if cyclists will ever carry digitally enhanced adverts on their jersies..

Only if they are lighter than lycra

 

[wafter]

I think 99% of people are (blissfully?) unaware of how incredibly precise, manipulative, exploititive and invasive modern marketing is. This has become so much worse in this digital age given the ever-more sophisticated methods available for both data harvesting and targeted advertising.

The amount of information held about individuals by third parties (and the methods they're legally allowed to use to collect it, which is tantamount to constant surveillance IMO) is utterly shocking and totally inexcusible / abhorrant from an ethical perspective IMO.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Once met an old bloke at the checkout, who was turning his then free bags inside out, when I asked him why, he said that they didn't pay him to walk down the street advertising their shop. I also had an argument with a used car salesman, he'd had a sticker put in the back window, a vinyl badge put on the tailgate & logo'd number plates put on a car I was about to buy, when I asked for £50 off he refused, so I gave him the option, pay up, take the logo's off or I don't want the car. I went & bought another one privately, far better deal in the end.

Car manufacturers literally spend millions on car design, with meticulous attention to detail paid to shadow lines, highlights, shape etc etc. Then some pillock sticks a JOE BLOGGS MOTORS sign in the back or “My other car is a Ferrari”. Berks.

 

[snorri]

I think 99% of people are (blissfully?) unaware of how incredibly precise, manipulative, exploititive and invasive modern marketing is.

Yet it seems unable to differentiate betweencycle sport and utility cycling.

 

[Pale Rider]

I think 99% of people are (blissfully?) unaware of how incredibly precise, manipulative, exploititive and invasive modern marketing is.

That may be true, but I wonder how effective it is.

I accept it must work, and if I'm being cleverly manipulated I would not know about it.

But taking the pro peloton as an example, there's no message I see on the television coverage that makes me buy anything.

I'm not aware what many of the sponsors do because they don't operate in the UK.

Widening it a little, when I was after an electric shaver I did have a look at one promoted by Eric Dier because I am a Tottenham fan.

But I got no further when I found you would need to be on Dier's wages to afford it.

 

[MichaelW2]

That may be true, but I wonder how effective it is.

I accept it must work, and if I'm being cleverly manipulated I would not know about it.

But taking the pro peloton as an example, there's no message I see on the television coverage that makes me buy anything.

I'm not aware what many of the sponsors do because they don't operate in the UK.

Widening it a little, when I was after an electric shaver I did have a look at one promoted by Eric Dier because I am a Tottenham fan.

But I got no further when I found you would need to be on Dier's wages to afford it.

I don't know about you but there are times in July when I could kill for an account at a French agricultural bank. No idea why.

 

[Beebo]

I don't know about you but there are times in July when I could kill for an account at a French agricultural bank. No idea why.

Similarly when I’m buying large quantities of industrial chemicals there’s only one name I trust.

 

[sheddy]

Everyone on earth has some du-pont in their blood.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000fvvm

 

[BrumJim]

I don't know about you but there are times in July when I could kill for an account at a French agricultural bank. No idea why.

Was funny watching the Crazy Caravan on the Tour de France, where, for example, a very elegant float came passed trying to persuade me to buy my charcuterie from Carrefour. I don't think anyone in Sheffield was persuaded to change from their local, for some reason.

 

[BrumJim]

Car manufacturers literally spend millions on car design, with meticulous attention to detail paid to shadow lines, highlights, shape etc etc. Then some pillock sticks a JOE BLOGGS MOTORS sign in the back or “My other car is a Ferrari”. Berks.

My father went to a lecture by the designer of the Landrover Discovery (and Freelander, I think). What does he really hate? Those wheel covers over the spare tyre on the tailgate. Why do you think he put it there? And what is it doing? It certainly isn't keeping it out of sight, and keeping it clean is a pretty pointless activity too.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Was funny watching the Crazy Caravan on the Tour de France, where, for example, a very elegant float came passed trying to persuade me to buy my charcuterie from Carrefour. I don't think anyone in Sheffield was persuaded to change from their local, for some reason.

mmmmm Carrefour. Amazing pastries

 

[wafter]

Yet it seems unable to differentiate betweencycle sport and utility cycling.

Probably because it wants to persuade every utility cyclist that they need to chop in their reliable, decades-old and ever-faithful budget-buster for some £2k composite race bike that'll wear out every 10 minutes and draw them into that perpetual consumptive doom-loop!

That may be true, but I wonder how effective it is.

I accept it must work, and if I'm being cleverly manipulated I would not know about it.

But taking the pro peloton as an example, there's no message I see on the television coverage that makes me buy anything.

I'm not aware what many of the sponsors do because they don't operate in the UK.

Widening it a little, when I was after an electric shaver I did have a look at one promoted by Eric Dier because I am a Tottenham fan.

But I got no further when I found you would need to be on Dier's wages to afford it.

I suspect it's potentially less effective in less mainstream markets because the target demographic is smaller and the potential spoils less spectacular. I'd also guess that unlike Michaelw2's football example, it's both less lucrative and more physically difficult to manipulate ads seen (in moving images) of cycling than it is in football, given the nature of the sport and the way it's filmed.

Of course if you're watching an event abroad I guess there's a strong possibility that the sponsors will be targeting the domestic market, or whichever market they think will give the highest yields if not the domestic one.

Personally like to think I'm pretty immune to all this crap; personal / celebrity endorsements get my bullshit-o-meter twitching from the very off and they're often the items I discount first; especially if said celebrity has no obvious connection with the product in question (other than being given an obscene amount of money just to say it's good).

I do sometimes wonder about my desire for a "gravel" bike and its suspicious correlation with the market frenzy on this subject currently. I'm resolute in my reasoning but it does make me wonder how my general attitude to the subject has been changed by all the generic promotional material floating around on youtube and the like. I certainly don't think the marketing in this case has got anywhere near as granular as actually influencing the actual make and model of bike I might go for though.