As I flip past pages and pages of advertisements in magazines, close yet another pop-up ad, ignore the advertisement banner at the top and down the sides of every webpage I visit and mute all the commercials I see on TV, I wonder if and how advertising works. The concept of providing a service for free in return for the opportunity to advertise is mind-boggling to someone who simply ignores as much advertising as I possibly can. In fact, this blog post was originally going to be about how ineffective I find advertising to be. And then I got to thinking about my most recent purchase and I discovered the treachery. While I didn't go to Moores because I saw a sweet commercial and was instantly lured in - my decision to buy pants wasn't motivated by a commercial, I just needed some pants - I somehow knew that Moores sold dress pants and decided to go there. How did I know that?! Who planted that information in my head?! We all know the answer, but it's a scary thought.

So no, the advertisement for the Hot Tubs isn't going to make me want a hot tub, but it will make me think of a place to get one if I ever decided to do so. I don't think I'm as susceptible to online ads though - there's no annoying jingle to recall. I can just scroll down and, in fact, I often make a point to not click on sponsored search results simply because they're sponsored. I couldn't tell you what the last online ad I saw was. Probably a car company or a dating service. But then again, who knows what's stuck.

I think I'm slowly losing the delusion that my thoughts are my own.