Has advertising finally gone too far?

[AB Asks]

In addition to sponsored billboards, TV adverts, signs at sports matches, radio, supermarkets and shop windows in town centres, the US has been trying to introduce 'word-of-mouth' advertising. As if adverts weren't difficult enough to avoid. Volunteers are given a list of products and/or services that they then try to use in conversations with friends and family. Do you think that word of mouth advertising would make you more likely to buy the product? Or has advertising reached the point of over saturation and so no longer works?

[B00]

I love the idea of someone desperately wondering how the hell they can fit Trojan condoms (for example) into a conversation with their family.

[jenstar]

Er... volunteers try to mention products to friends and family? Huh? I don't get that at all. Surely they'd have to be paid somehow - and if they were paid, how would anyone know whether the person ahd actually done that or just pocketed the money without, well, somehow asking the "family and friends" and thus blowing it? Secret surveillance? Or is this story a hoax?

There are promotions people who go out into bars and try to create a buzz around a product by posing as real customers and talking to strangers - is this story a mangled version of that? Can I call "********!" on AB Asks?

[ludwig]

It seems like a ridiculous story...but hey, I'll tell you what's not ridiculous - New Persil non-bio, It gets my whites really clean without fading the coulors.

[ludwig]

*Colours* - silly me. I obviously need the Collins Gem pocket dictionary, �3.99 from all good bookstores.

[B00]

hahaha ludwig excellent!

[wildwood]

True word of mouth recommendation is certainly the best form of advertising and is the main one I take notice of. However, I really can't believe that voluteers would willingly participate in this commercial venture, unless it is some kind of prisoners' browney-point scoring exercise dreamed up by our mindless politicians.

Those volunteers would need to be well versed in their conversation skills or else it would be too obvious. Sorry, I just do not believe this.

Growing consumer resistance to intrusive and/or dishonest advertising is a well known fact and I doubt if any manufacturer would be silly enough to entertain such a method.

[salmanakber]

Suggests a concern or question about the extent to which advertising has intruded upon various aspects of people's lives or society as a whole. It implies that there may have been a tipping point where advertising practices or strategies have become excessive, invasive, or ethically questionable. This line reflects a growing awareness or unease regarding the influence and pervasiveness of advertising in contemporary society. It prompts a critical examination of the impact and boundaries of advertising in order to determine whether it has crossed a threshold of acceptability.