this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026

721 points (97.6% liked)

Showerthoughts

41178 readers

533 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

All posts must be showerthoughts
The entire showerthought must be in the title
No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
Posts must be original/unique
Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

vatlark@lemmy.world

forkball@lemmy.world

SuperEars@lemmy.world

721

I don't have money to pay premium to not see ads. What in the world makes you think that I have money to buy what you are advertising me? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by capuccino@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world

161 comments fedilink hide all child comments

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 51 points 6 days ago (6 children)

That's the neat thing, they don't.

Marketing looks like it is there to make you buy products, but it's a well-known fact that this doesn't work, and online ads specifically allow performance measurements, and they show that it's not worth the money.

So what are ads actually there for then?

First, remember that the thing that marketing departments are best at is marketing their own importance to company management. They are really good at convincing their companies that if they stop marketing, everything will collapse. So in this way, marketing is there to finance the marketing department, and everyone's too scared to stop marketing, because if they do they will be seen as the biggest idiots ever.

Second, marketing is there to provide a small revenue stream to the platform where you see the ads, but more importantly to punish you for not paying premium. Youtube makes you watch a shitton of ads, not because they care about whether you buy anything from the ads, but to punish you for not paying premium and to get you to do so. A premium customer brings in orders of magnitude more money than an ad-only customer.

[–] WindyRebel@lemmy.world 28 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (6 children)

They are really good at convincing their companies that if they stop marketing, everything will collapse.

I hate that I’m going to defend marketing here, but if they do stop marketing then things will collapse (for many businesses). Do I like marketing, personally? No. That’s why I got out of marketing and am becoming an elementary school teacher to help others rather than spit propaganda but I digress…

Marketing isn’t always about generating a sale. Many times its reach and brand recall. We’re a global and digital economy now, so reach is massively important for survival. Stopping marketing limits who is exposed to your brand and the repetition makes your company synonymous with a product.

Why do we call tissues Kleenex? Why do we call cotton swabs a Qtip? Why do we call small sticky notepads Post-Its? Why do we call searching “Googling”? Why do we gravitate toward those brands even when cheaper and more generic options exist that are perfectly on par?

Making those brands the prime thing you think of when you use a specific thing so that no one thinks of using something else even when they have money. You want people to mention your product or think about it even if they aren’t buying it.

You’re drowning out the potential of your competition. That’s marketing, and if you stop then your competitor takes over or a small business won’t grow.

[–] ssladam@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (2 children)

As an engineer who hated marketing, started my own business, which subsequently failed due to my lack of understanding for the importance and proper execution of the marketing mission.... I now have a deep respect, and appreciation of a well-run marketing function.

[–] architect@thelemmy.club 2 points 6 days ago

I have a great business name and word of mouth carries me.

I feel like if you need marketing it’s because you have too many competitors all doing the same thing ie: no one needs your business.

[–] Zacryon@feddit.org 1 points 6 days ago

If a business can not sustain itself without marketing, then the product is possibly not worth having.

[–] nagaram@startrek.website 5 points 6 days ago

This video by Northridgefix always stuck with me because most of why his business grew is because he spent so much Google ads that he made enough money to then move to a strip mall by a major road all while making YouTube videos and taking mailed in work.

He has another video looking for new employees because he had too much business.

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

Why do we gravitate toward those brands even when cheaper and more generic options exist that are perfectly on par?

To be fair, there are plenty of people who specifically avoid those brands because they are more expensive and they know they can save money with cheaper alternatives, or because they can't afford the name brand.

With that said, there are some times where the name brand does actually provide a superior product.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 6 days ago

Yeah, everyone knows Coca-Cola. Nobody immediately goes out to buy some when they see the ad with Santa Clause and whatever, but the brand recognition is conditioned into pretty much everyone so you notice it in the store when you're thinking of grabbing a cool beverage from the fridge.

It's not even that good, but it's the default.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 14 points 6 days ago

If marketing majors could read, they'd be very upset.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Marketing is more than just advertising and promoting though. Marketing is an integral part of a business. If you research what your target audience likes, that's marketing. Researching where you should sell your products, marketing. Focus group testing, marketing. What price you should sell, marketing. Even if a business doesn't have a marketing department they still engage in marketing.

[–] Zink@programming.dev 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's a very broad umbrella term.

I'm an engineer on a team that designs new products and fixes old ones. I'm happy to joke about the advertising & sales departments being the dark side of marketing, but when it comes to creating a product that is useful for our end-users, other facets of marketing are absolutely essential. The ideal, after all, is to have whatever ticket I am working on be traceable back to a customer need.

Heck, the product is pretty niche so even when I am chatting with our service technician about whatever crazy stuff customers are seeing & doing in the field, you could justify calling that marketing. It's customer information making its way to future design decisions, even if that decision is actually being made by an engineer rather than the Product Manager.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

As you see in the comments here lots of people have no idea what marketing is beyond promotion. Unfortunately it's often engineers who are the clueless ones and just think that you just need to build a great product and the sales will come automatically. When businesses started by engineers often fail because they make something that has no product market fit because they skipped the crucial steps of marketing. Engineers often look down on MBAs and think an MBA is useless but in my opinion every engineer should take a business and marketing course.

[–] melfie@lemy.lol 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

the thing that marketing departments are best at is marketing their own importance to company management

That’s quite an interesting insight.

[–] iglou@programming.dev 2 points 6 days ago (2 children)

And a catchy one, but not really meaningful or correct.

The whole comment showcases how little they know about running a business. Marketing works. But of course we the consumer don't notice it works, because we think "Well I never click on an ad..." which also reflects on advertisement statistics.

But that's not the point of ads, at least not anymore. The point is you saw the brand. You saw what they do. Everytime you see the brand name or logo, everytime you see the product, your brain registers it. You might not realise it, but it does. And when the time comes you need a product like that, that's where the value of marketing shows. Because you'll browse, research, or whatever you do when you decide you need something. And you'll see the brand, and you'll see the name, and you'll think "Hmm I've heard of them before" and immediately place them higher in your mind than a competitor with 0 ad budget.

[–] melfie@lemy.lol 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I’m sure it’s true that a lot of marketing departments are useless, but adept at marketing themselves. At the same time, you’re right that marketing also can and does work, and the marketing that works best is when you’re not even conscious of it. For example, most of us here are well-aware of the upcoming Steam Frame and Steam Machine. How so? Marketing. Most people here hate ads, but post a Valve press release about upcoming hardware and nobody here even cares that they’re being marketed to.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I find it boss that ads don't make anymony. They seem to be driving the whole world economy.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] DomeGuy@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

A bit late to the party, but... well...

If a streaming service has an ad-free tier, the ads shown aren't really there to sell the things they advertise. Oh, sure, the buyer of the ad wants your money, but they didn't pay a bunch to show you that ad and the revenue from the ad buy just has be "slightly higher than spam" to be worthwhile.

"Ad-Supported' tiers exist to differentiate the higher cost points. Which is why the ads frequently aren't aligned with natural break points in the video. And why in some cases it's the same two or three ads shown for every artificial and clumsy break.

The ads you are seeing exist primarily as an advertisement for the ad-free tier.

[–] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago

Sse Spotify for a proof of this concept. 99% of their ads are specifically to tell you about how cool it is to not have ads.

Or at least they were. My wife's been paying a long time i dont know what its doing now.

[–] BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Idiots live in debt by throwing money on bullshit all the time

[–] Damaskox@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

Makes me think about the saying "We buy stuff we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like"

[–] Bieren@lemmy.today 8 points 6 days ago

Credit card debt.

[–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Nobody cares if you have money or not. It's about reaching a lot of users and finding one's that are willing to buy

[–] prex@aussie.zone 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Ive forgotten the actual terms of the purchasing funnel. Something like attention, awareness, interest, desire, action.

Edit: I looked it up

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

I have colleagues who are happy enough to see personalised ads. Sad as it may be, we live in Brave New World and people are happy to take soma.

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago

There are plenty of idiots that get sucked into those ads. Well shit, the 2024 US election proves it too.

[–] mitrosus@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 5 days ago

It is a way to enshittify the free version, as an ad for the premium version of the same.

[–] Alberat@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

if anything, they should ADD ads to premium users because they have more money

[–] razen@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

Ads make people believe that you need the product and not wish to have it. They show it so much that the brain literally thinks that it is a need and has to be bought even if it takess you go in debt.

[–] Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 4 points 6 days ago

What you can, or cannot afford is irrelevant. You're a pair of eyeballs and they're paid for eyeballs.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 days ago

If you aren't buying premium, maybe you are instead saving money to buy some of the things that are advertised to you. I have plenty of disposable income and could probably buy some of the things I see in ads; I don't like wasting money on things I don't need, so I buy neither YT Premium nor most things that I see in ads.

Also, if some of the things that are advertised to you are things you do occasionally need (like food), then your argument likewise doesn't work.

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You can't come up with $148.39 once a year?

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

That's for premium what?

Is it for my car to accelerate faster? I saw Mercedes listed that at

Monthly: $90/month

Yearly: $900/year

Lifetime of Vehicle: $2,950

And that's actually from Mercedes website, https://media.mbusa.com/releases/mercedes-benz-usa-announces-performance-acceleration-on-demand-upgrade-for-eqe-and-eqs-customers

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

YouTube premium $148.39 per year. And they no longer let us break it into monthly payments. I remember when YouTube cost nothing with no ads. And then I remember it cost $7.99 a month. Then it was $9.99 a month. Then for a few years it was $12.99 a month. And all of a sudden they're like $148.39 a year!

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

What makes you think advertisers are selling to you? They are selling YOU to the next advertisers. As in, they are selling your data!

[–] MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

On the other hand, when the "product" is a F2P mobile game that also sustains itself through ads that are mostly F2P mobile games that sustain themselves through ads...

like, who is paying for all this?!?

(Turns out some of the games in ads are actually P2W. I've also decided to never play another F2P mobile game and start buying some again instead.)

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 days ago

They think you are stupid.

Enough people are.

[–] ZephyrXero@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

I don't have enough lifetime to expend on watching ads. Too time expensive

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 3 points 6 days ago

Don't have money? Time to increase your debt!!

load more comments