A Commercial That Influenced Your Decision Making

[DallasEast]

Mine: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Best Buy's Black Friday Week deals started today. I had patiently waited until now to get a replacement laptop for the one I gave Best Buy to repair, which they discovered was 'unrepairable' and reportedly chunked immediately afterwards.

Anyhoo, my plan was using my store credit (which the store associate seemed reluctant to give me after I said no to other more expensive laptops ) on an similar model and NOT paying extra for something I should not have needed to buy! (settle down DE) So, I loaded my Best Buy.com cart with my selection a while back, cooled my heels to see if it would eventually be listed as a Black Friday deal (it did), and watched for the cart's price update. Everything fell according to plan. <insert sinister Mr. Burns laughter here>

What I did not anticipate was a St. Jude donation option at checkout. My mind flooded with memories of a particular commercial that always warms my heart. I did not even think about. Just donated automatically.

I give to charity but usually it is after I consider which one to give and how much. This particular time was almost on reflex and I know why that was.

Has a commercial ever had that kind of effect on you?

 

[Runwildboys]

The Wendy's Bacon/Jalapeno/Cheddar Burger.......I thought about it every day at lunch, until I was able to finally stop at Wendy's and get one. I wish it was on the menu every day, instead of being seasonal.

 

[CouchCoach]

I am influenced by advertising messages, both negative and positive, almost on a daily basis. I only watch network TV for live sports so I don't get a lot of exposure to TV ads as much as the normal person.

There are negative influences more than positive as I won't consider doing business with State Farm, Progressive or Nationwide because I don't like their spokespersons. Same goes for Subway and what Madison Avenue moron thought Belichick and Saban would make good spokespersons? They're awful.

I have responded to ads on this site, got my masks from an ad here and they're the best of all the ones I ordered.

Since I spent most of my career in the ad field, I do appreciate the process of response: Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action.

One of the best examples of this was years ago a new nut company advertised during the SB, Emerald Nuts. I went to the local Kroger the next day to get some and they were nowhere to be seen. I knew the manager. found him. asked him and he gave me this frustrated look and said "we don't have them and don't bother going to other stores because nobody has them. They broke those ads to force shelf space and it worked as I've had people in all day looking for them. We'll have them in by Friday". They did and the nuts were mediocre but they'd created the 4 steps in the process with two strategically placed TV ads in the SB. Gutsy move and they made the stores look bad when it was them all along.

My biggest purchasing problem is that I am the poster boy for impulse buying. Those endcaps at Costco are CC traps laid perfectly.

 

[cowboyec]

i miss those carls jr super bowl ads.

 

[Jammer]

This wasn't a commercial but a PSA I saw a couple of times when I was a young boy that really stuck with me for years. It was for screening for colon cancer. The PSA video started with a small group of people around a funeral plot morning the death of a loved one. The PSA continued in reverse to show a man in a hospital bed clearly not doing well, and continued going in reverse to show the man and his wife getting devastating news, until finally stopping with the man reading a newspaper. On the newspaper's back page in bold letters it read something along the line of "Scheduling Colonoscopies Saves Lives" in bold headline print. The wife appears on screen and says to her husband he needs to get a colonoscopy soon. He looks up at her replies, "I will take care of it later." The point of the PSA was not to take care of it later, but do it sooner.

When I turned 50 I had a colonoscopy within a month of my birthday.

 

[cowboyec]

ALI LANDRY DORITOS AD
it influenced me...alot.

 

[InTheZone]

many commercials/ads continue to drive me away from whatever it is they're trying to sell/promote

Even as a kid I always asked do people actually go out and buy the products they see on tv (outside of whatever cool toy they were showing off at the time then it was a different story)