Introduction

What is "Why I Probably Won't Buy Your Product " about?

Short Answer: Ad critiques.

Long Answer: To analyze ads to see whom they are aimed at, what they promise, and how well they work.

Why do ad critiques?

It's all about trying to be more aware of what influences you.

Most of the time when people see advertising they scoff and look pityingly at all those poor fools who were affected while they were not. The problem with that mentality is that most people probably were affected in some way, and pretending that you weren't just means you're less prepared to recognize how and why you were influenced.

Analyzing what an ad is actually telling you can help to make you a more active consumer, as opposed to someone who is simply acted upon by the media. Analyzing what messages work and don't work on you and why can help you realize just what forms of persuasion — or manipulation, depending on how you look at it — you are especially susceptible to.

That could be useful information to know.