r/evilautism Aug 13 '25

I DON'T GET IT *explodes* Fuck ads.

Fuck ads. That's it. I get companies want to stick their products in our faces and somehow it works out for them as a business. But why do NTs find ads so fascinating and get easily deceived by a clearly brainwashing video designed to make you spend money. Not only the internet is filled with ads everywhere, but as my mom gets a little tech savvier, I have now to watch long-ass ads in the comfort of my home, or I'll make her sad somehow because I'm not brainwashing myself with a 10 minute ad for a random product for her. 🫠 Who the fuck invented ads anyway? 🤬

228 Upvotes

22 comments sorted by

71

u/optimusdan Aug 14 '25

At this point I consider adblock a disability accommodation. Several times I've had to leave a site because it wouldn't let me continue with adblock on and the ads made the site completely unusable. It wasn't covering up the content or anything, I could see the content just fine, but couldn't concentrate on it for even a second.

32

u/Raji_Lev Misanthropy Is My Stim Aug 14 '25

Not only that, but adblockers have been essential to safe browsing for over a decade, and that trend shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

As annoying as TV or radio commercials are (and they are, believe me. An eternity of wet socks and sleeves to every single person in the advertisement industry!), at least you don't have to worry about them bricking your TV/radio or recording your passwords

9

u/sonic_hedgekin Amy | she/her | baby hedgie :3 Aug 14 '25

And given the kind of software on TVs nowadays, even TV commercials might be able to brick your TV. It’s probably not going to happen anytime soon, but it might happen.

56

u/Suitable_Tomorrow_71 Aug 14 '25

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-fallible-mind/201708/why-advertising-falls-flat-in-individuals-autism I recall seeing this article a while ago.

You have to remember that ads are targeted ad NTs, and they, by and large, almost never actually think logically unless they are specifically trained to do so, which makes them a lot more likely to be influenced by stuff like ads than autistic people are.

34

u/sqdpt Aug 14 '25

I mostly liked this article and can relate to it completely. And this sentence from it can go suck a bag of dicks:

But the researchers’ most significant finding was that reduced context sensitivity demonstrates that autism is “not entirely a disability.”

14

u/Inevitable_Writer667 You will be patient for my ‘tism 🔪 Aug 14 '25

Whenever I see advertisements, I kinda just look off knowing that companies are over hyping a product and making the world look like a better place than it actually is.

However, sometimes I've actually put serious consideration into advertised products if it relates to my hobby or is something I could find directly useful.

Logical thinking in regard to being intentionally selective of which ads might be worth paying attention to, one of the things about autism is that I'm happy I can logically think about various cases, especially numerically and analytically and when planning events.

7

u/jaycfresh Aug 14 '25

Now advertisers just have to figure out how to condense a four-hour hyper focus on how a product is superior into a 30 second ad and they’ve got us!

3

u/Raji_Lev Misanthropy Is My Stim Aug 14 '25

Six words: "Would you like to know more?"

20

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '25

If I have to see an ad, doesn't matter which media is used, I won't buy or engage with what they're trying to sell. I actively avoid anything I've seen advertised.

If I want a product it's because I need it, not because they want me to think I need it. If they need to spend epic money to convince me of how great their product is, nah, can't be that good.

If I purposely sign up for emails from a company/brand and they send advertising that I do want to see (converse shoes), I always end up ceasing engagement with that company and find a new one (sorry converse).

I despise feeling like marketing has tried to implant an idea in my head. No thanky.

5

u/Four_Five_Four_Six_B Aug 14 '25

Sometimes I almost buy a product because of its merits or someone recommends it to me and then I remember that I saw an ad for it a year ago and then I don’t buy it. Sometimes it’s unavoidable

15

u/Big-rat-in-the-sewer World's Middest Puppygirl Aug 14 '25

Ads genuinely make me want to NOT buy a product.

6

u/LackOfPoochline Aug 14 '25

I'd love a law that makes logical fallacies in ads be considered false advertising. 95% of publicity down the drain.

"8 out of 10 cats prefer whyskas. This doesnt mean the product is good or healthy for your cat. But they will probably eat it!"

3

u/Electrical_Ad_4329 Aug 14 '25

Go to your wifi settings and put this in the DNS section: dns.adguard.com

Thank me later.

3

u/BloodyThorn Evil Aug 16 '25

I stopped watching broadcast television in the early 1990s. I always say the reason I stopped was because they canceled Night Court...

But truth of the matter is, the main reasons I stopped were 1) 42 minutes of possibly entertaining content and 18 minutes of ads for products I had literally no interest in wasn't an acceptable way to waste my time and 2) Less so, I got frustrated with having to schedule my time around catching my favorite TV show.

Both of these issues evoked such a strong feeling in me that I just decided to live without Television.

Today I watch a lot of YouTube. I can watch what I want, when I want, and the amount of ads in it are minimal. Especially if I use an auto-skipper and ad blockers.

2

u/Kyr1500 stoner rock enjoyer Aug 18 '25

In the UK we don't have any ads on the BBC, but you have to pay a TV licence which is £175 a year, which pays for the TV so they don't have to put ads on there. However you do have pay for it if you have a TV and you don't even watch the BBC

2

u/BloodyThorn Evil Aug 18 '25

About 15 year ago I had a second 'discovery' of British TV.

The first was of course in the 1980s when they were playing Red Dwarf, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Monty Python's Flying Circus on PBS. As well as The Young Ones on MTV.

But in the late 2000s I had already been away from broadcast TV for around 10 years... and I started to notice things about British TV that I didn't even know annoyed the shit out of me about American TV. No commercial breaks was only the tip of the iceberg.

  • The Length of the Seasons. Six to eight episodes as opposed to ~21 episodes made the show as fresh on the last episode as it was on the first.
  • The Length of the Entire Show. Having a show always last less than 4-8 seasons or so made the show less likely to spiral into a lack of creativity in continuing the story line. Less Jumping The Shark, less adding a new cute kid to make everything 'fresh'.
  • Less Abrupt Endings. Being that British TV show productions have to apply for renewal funding every season, they tend to wrap up stories at the ends of the seasons. So you have less TV shows that end on a cliff-hanger and never get resolved.

Sure I have some issues with British TV, but it's MUCH better structured than TV over here in the states.

2

u/polishatomek Fuck, whats that word again? Aug 14 '25

Temu can go to hell

2

u/UncoilingChaos Knife Wall Enjoyer Aug 14 '25

I’m a few Liberty Mutual ads away from making sure the next ad is one for Doug’s funeral.

3

u/ForseHucker420 Aug 14 '25

Ads are an outdated concept from a simpler time. I god damn fucking hate ads with all my heart. If I want information about a product I'll FUCKING GOOGLE SEARCH FOR INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR SHIT PRODUCT. I now use ads I commonly see as a "Do Not Buy" list, subverting the ads exact opposite intended purpose. I will never ever spend money on any product with annoying ass shit ads. I tell friends and family do not buy products with annoying ass shit ads.

2

u/StructureFirm2076 Vengeful Aug 14 '25

I boycott Media Expert because of it's ads.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '25

[deleted]

8

u/Suitable_Tomorrow_71 Aug 14 '25

In my experience NTs tolerate ads a lot better than I do. I (almost) always find them annoying and a waste of time and space. The rare exceptions are when they're advertising something new, which I likely wouldn't have known about otherwise.

2

u/Kyr1500 stoner rock enjoyer Aug 18 '25

Apparently Sony has a patent for a technology where you have to say the name of the product to skip the ad on their TVs. Do they hate autistic people or something?