Repelling sales
Like many, I've likely gotten used to even negative publicity being good for business. Until too much in-the-face advertising triggered repugnance in our faces.
No, we do not believe in your latest investment offerings, simply because you claim how awesome your profits are. And no, the free mobile video games put us off from installing them, because we know what it leads to - pay and pay while you play to win.
I read recently about carry-along (subtle) publicity, which I agree is far more powerful in its gradualness, than blatant lifestyle bragging (“the thing I grab in my hand is far more gorgeous than anything yours can”), and narrow-lens scope focuses (“look, botox makes you young again, never mind the toxins that bloat your faces into monsters”).
This is why a non-video text infiltrated through our defences recently, a most effective carry-along effect. Chicken (many love it). Deep fried (some won't confess, as it's awfully unhealthy). Salt and pepper (ubiquitous, unlike spicy, very spicy but modestly, moderately so, and Thai and Korean). And the propaganda slipped through, we're hooked.
And so it goes. Advertising makes businesses richer. Just not the advertisers. And not from the many more humans that they disgust with their pushiness and irrelevance. Like a news report of a terrible accident, followed by a commercial of a luxurious sports car. Or the sob story of a brain cancer survivor, paired with an ad for headache tablets.