As stated on my media post, I have a small (pretty large) addiction to my phone. My second most used app would have to be YouTube averaging at the minimum of 6 hours a week. And unless you've been living under a rock, you know that youtubers and companies make money off of ads that are placed on youtuber's videos earning them ad revenue. Some ads that are longer than 10-15 seconds often have a "skip ad" button after 5 seconds of being on screen but even though they give you the option to skip, Their goal is often to keep you watching the ad as long as possible.
The main goal of the ads that are longer than 15 seconds that allow you to skip is to pull you in during the first 5 seconds with some outrageous claim or famous actor that people idolize. The people behind the advertisements know the people will be attracted to this claim so they try to make it as eye-catching as possible. Thats why the "This simple step will lose you 10 pounds in a week!" advertisements are so popular. They make too good to be true claims in order for you to stay longer because even though you know off the top of your head that something is too good to be true, deep down you hope that it is true. Nobody doesn't want cheat codes for life and this is what advertisers feed off of. They lock on to that hope of having something thats too good to be true and use it to try and reel you in and keep you hypnotized for as long as humanly possible. Another way advertisers reel watchers in is using famous actors or singers that are idolized. One of the most common ways they're used is when advertisers give them products for free and in exchange they send a video back of them saying how good the product is in turn making people want to buy them because their favorite celebrity has them. I've been a victim of this as I saw one of my favorite youtubers sent a plush from Japan of Gudetama (look it up I actually can't describe it) and even though it was $30 and $8 shipping from Japan, I still had to buy it even though now all it does is sit with all my other plushies being neglected on my bed.
I liked how you tied the theme of advertisements into your own personal experiences with YouTube (including your possibly unnecessary purchase of a plushie). I can definitely relate to this as someone who spends too much time trying to get past annoying ads on YouTube and Instagram. The only question I really had after reading this is how have ads on platforms like YouTube changed over time, because so many people have gotten acclimated to the 5 second skip and so just tune out any ad that pops up?
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