If 90% “of Americans” or 50 million “Americans” liked/used/approved/tried/etc some product, do you care if those people were specifically “Americans” instead of “people” or something more general?

20 comments

  1. I just assume it’s all bullshit because it’s an ad. The claimed sample group doesn’t really enter into it.

  2. In advertisements, if the spiel is “9 out of 10 people use this toothbrush”, I’m assuming the people being referred to are Americans

    Or, I don’t think it matters if the wording is ‘American’ or ‘people’.. I still think it’s a bs stat either way

  3. I mean, subconsciously its probably better to say “Americans” but probably doesn’t matter too much.

    If I’m buying or subscribing to a service, it would probably be more of a factor.

  4. I just assume it’s cheesy marketing garbage. I don’t really take those statistics into account before making a purchase. I tend to try to find an independent reviewer that I trust, assuming I’m not able to try/sample the product myself beforehand. I’ve bought shit that everyone raved about and been disappointed, and I’ve bought things people absolutely rag and love it.

  5. To me, the importance of that number is nonexistent. Oh a lot of people like this? To quote George Carlin: “Well a lot of people are really fuckin’ stupid, too. Shall we just adopt all their standards?”

  6. Well, It’s a more relevant sample group if they are Americans. And it might be the target marketing group for the ad.

    Something like 50% of American households see the ads in weekly NFL games, but that’s only 2% of the Homo Sapiens in the world.

    Unless you’re arguing for “American” to be implicit in the sample group so that there’s no need to mention it.

  7. It’s sort of appealing to the desire to fit in. Saying “Americans” to Americans simply narrows it down to the group they encounter the most, and so the group they want to fit in with. It’s pretty basic marketing.

    If they wanted to appeal to someone’s need to feel extraordinary, they might say that whatever-it-is is super-popular in some other country, because “International” or “Imported” makes some people feel more worldly and sophisticated, even if it’s just some dumb product.

  10. I guess when advertisers present any type of survey results, I implicitly assume it’s a survey of people in the country I’m being advertised in. As a result a distinction of surveying “Americans” or “people” doesn’t register anything with me.

    With ads like “4 out of 5 dentists recommend This Toothpaste” for example, I assume they surveyed American dentists.

  11. Not important at all. TBH the only time I see/hear product ads is during the Super Bowl.

  12. I don’t pay attention to ads so…no, I don’t care if they’re saying “fifty million americans do X” or “fifty million near sighted antarctic tigers improved their lives with Y” or whatever the hell else

  13. Zero. That’s snake oil advertising. I hate advertising. Show me some features and benefits like it’s 1955. what are you selling? Why do I care?

    Is it just me or does current advertising seem… broken somehow. Often I don’t know what they were advertising or I’m now hostile to the product.

    Quick, reply with something you bought that you saw an ad for.

  14. Don’t care at all, can’t think of the last time I even saw that used in ads. I look for statistics and data for things I care about.

  16. Ineffective as an appeal to popularity. Lacks nuance for describing severity or frequency of a problem.

    10 out of 10 Americans who exercise will die. But 9 out of 10 Americans who eat Oreos do not regret the decision!

  17. Consensus is one of the most powerful persuasive techniques out there – people LIKE to do what other people like them are doing.

    “Americans” is probably too broad to be effective in most things though, and the narrower you can get (to a point) the more effective it is.

    “90% of americans do this” is a curiosity and I don’t really care.

    “90% of people from Missouri do this” is interesting and I’m curious.

    “90% of people from St Louis do this” has me VERY curious

    “90% people from St Louis who are white, make over $100k, and identify as male do this” is going to make me take a long, hard look at whatever it is (assuming I’m in that demographic)

  20. Advertisements are just thought pollution. Always meaningless. Always manipulative. Never trustworthy.

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like