Why do Americans say ‘this would be great advertising’ so often?

Posted by fcksaltwater@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 50 comments

Hi everyone,

I’ve noticed in a lot of American videos (especially viral clips) that when something happens involving a product — even if it’s not an ad — people often comment things like “this is great advertising for that product or its brand.”

Is this just a joke/meme, or do people in the US generally think more in terms of marketing and branding in everyday situations?

Curious if this is actually a cultural thing or just something I’m seeing online. Thanks!

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jub-jub-bird@reddit

Contrary to what a lot of others are saying I have seen this and it is absolutely a comment that might be made from time to time. That said it's coming up in the viral videos you see WAY more often it does in real life just because of how social media algorithms and viral media work.

The occasion for such a comment is usually something massively over-performing in an unusual or unexpected way. Most often some object surviving a disaster completely unscathed when everything around it was utterly destroyed. The comment that "That would make a great ad for X" is just a humorous, sometimes ironic, comment about how unexpectedly well something turned out when you would have expected otherwise.

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levi070305@reddit

Something going viral is better than any typical ad by miles

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fcksaltwater@reddit (OP)

But no other culture is thinking as much about branding as Americans

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revengeappendage@reddit

Yet every other culture drinks coke they get from McDonald’s. So there is that.

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GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit

You're obnoxious.

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Baroque_Hologram@reddit

How do you know the people commenting are American?

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machagogo@reddit

Europeans assuming everyone on the internet is American = logical.

Americans mistakingly assuming someone on the Internet is American = ignorant.

This is the way..

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holymacaroley@reddit

I don't know where you're getting that, honestly. YouTube content creators aren't general Americans. They're likely either getting something from the company or trying to get on their radar to be offered something.

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tomcat_tweaker@reddit

"No other culture". How could you possibly know this? Confirmation bias on your part from watching too many American videos.

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bearsnchairs@reddit

What makes you think that?

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levi070305@reddit

Then it's probably a cultural thing. Sometimes it's also seeing a product work as intended is somewhat shocking because many of them don't. So if you see something good, something as simple as it working in real life would be something that turned you onto it more so than any ad.

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SteampunkExplorer@reddit

I've never heard anyone say that. It sounds like a funny joke to make when something weird happens.

But also, if you're looking at commercial content, or aspiring commercial content, then yeah, I guess the perspective is just going to be more commercialized. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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anneofgraygardens@reddit

Americans do not say this often and it is not a meme. Happy to help!

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TheBimpo@reddit

Because you’re in algorithm of similar content. I’ve never seen this. You should really share the videos that are showing this.

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fcksaltwater@reddit (OP)

https://www.reddit.com/r/MakeMeSmile/s/O2ONwe7D4C This video is trendig rn. Always with a caption somewhat like "would be a nice ad"

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

Come on, do you really think people are suggesting that should be an actual advertisement?

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fcksaltwater@reddit (OP)

That's not the point. The point is, why is the advertisement of something brought up?

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thatsad_guy@reddit

Have you heard of the concept called a "joke"?

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Scratocrates@reddit

The point is, why is the advertisement of something brought up?

To vex foreigners.

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TheBimpo@reddit

Who knows man, people say all sorts of dumb stuff, there isn't a national consciousness about every thing people do online.

I suppose there could be a trend of people filming things inside businesses to show how charming or funny the people that work there are and at the end...Come to FurnuitureLand! or whatever. Instead of a bunch of music and people talking to cameras and telling you that a sofa is $899 this holiday weekend. It's just not that deep.

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Porcupine-in-a-tree@reddit

You stay away from OP with that logic. He came here to validate some random stereotype not be presented with facts.

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machagogo@reddit

The concept of irony is lost upon them.

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fcksaltwater@reddit (OP)

I didn't encounter this all in a small period of time but more over the years. But just today I saw something like this again and wanted to ask the question because it is very noticeable.

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Current_Poster@reddit

I'm not sure what you're even talking about, sorry. I have never heard people say "this would be great advertising for (XYZ thing)."

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GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit

They're just saying if people saw the success I an having with this item, they would also buy it.

This is not some deeper cultural meaning.

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callmeseetea@reddit

I’ve seen this in like the comments section sometimes. Like if something crazy happens to a car but the car withstands it, ppl will be like “this car brand should use this for an ad”

People aren’t so much thinking of branding/marketing in the USA. I think that generally Americans are more inundated with advertising than other parts of the world. So when media or art that features a commercial product is impressive and disruptive but it’s organic/not already an ad, saying that “this would be a great ad” is basically how we share our surprise that it isn’t already

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cavall1215@reddit

Culturally, yes, Americans are pretty aware of marketing and advertising because it's generally everywhere. PT Barnum also has a popular quote that "There's no such thing as bad publicity," and many Americans recognize that a product/brand that somehow gets into the media without needing to pay for it is getting a free marketing campaign. It's a pretty common to mention that X is getting free marketing, and it's often said as a cliche joke or a lame attempt to sound like you're some marketing guru.

That being said...most of us aren't living our lives constantly or even frequently thinking about marketing and branding.

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Tommy_Wisseau_burner@reddit

I’ve never heard anyone say this but it’s probably the algorithm algorithming and it sounds kind of funny in meme form

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Judgy-Introvert@reddit

We don’t. I’ve never heard anyone say this.

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machagogo@reddit

Im not sure I have ever heard that, certainly have not said it

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gleaming-the-cubicle@reddit

Do we?

I can only think of one time I heard that and it was a car that caught on fire but the Stanley cup was fine and even still had ice in it

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Wodan11@reddit

Never heard it seriously, that I can recall.

Now, said facetiously, that would be a thing. Like, "that's my next band's name." When you aren't even a musician.

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Porcupine-in-a-tree@reddit

I’ve never heard someone say that before. You are probably in an algorithm loop and getting a lot of similar content which is skewing your perspective.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

I seriously doubt you're noticing this "so often." It's definitely not something that happens "in everyday situations."

I think you're misunderstanding context and/or phrasing for out-of-the-ordinary situations where people jokingly make a "ringing endorsement" about an object that did (or endured) something unexpected. In these cases, people aren't actually saying something should be a real advertisement.

For a wacky example, let's say someone is riding a bike on a ridgeline and falls off into a canyon, but their shoelace catches on a tree limb and saves them from almost certain death. Someone might exclaim "Wow, that's a great advertisement for that shoelace!" They don't actually mean there should be a real advertisement for that brand/model of shoelace, they just mean it did something unexpected in dramatic/superlative manner.

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TwentyCharacters2022@reddit

I wouldn’t call it a “common” phrase, and I never put a nationality with it before. But while I haven’t shared your experience, I can confirm Ive said it before.

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kellyforeal@reddit

I've definitely never heard or said that. Possibly a joke?

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Hot-Tart1347@reddit

Both. It’s acknowledging that whatever happened aligns with how the brand wants to present when said in earnest. Or just that I’d be convinced of the quality of the product. It’s a joke as often as not. Like if someone was carrying something in their pocket and got shot and said item stopped the bullet, that would be a joke someone would say about the item.

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Ok-Energy-9785@reddit

They're clearly trying to sell something

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wfbhp@reddit

This isn't something I've ever encountered except for an occasional joke irl. So I'm going to say this is something that's only a thing in specifically the kind of videos you're watching online.

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Head_Act_585@reddit

My personal theory is because we so bombarded by ads all of the time we are subconsciously thinking about it. When every TV show is in a 30 minute time slot with a 22 minute runtime, every third post on FB is sponsored, every fifth video on Shorts/Reels/TikTok is an ad, every page of a magazine (when those were a thing) is an ad, every YouTube video plays ads before, during, and after and often had an imbedded ad by the video presenter themsleves.

If you avoid all of that you still have gas pumps that play ads, stores that play ads between songs. Hell even driving (location dependent) you pass billboards that are advertising to you....like it's so constant!!

Then couple in that most products are advertised like some perfect, robust, delicious version of itself when the real item is never anything like that and I can see it. I have definitely caught myself saying something like that from time to time, because a product actually looked/worked like the ad said it would.

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holymacaroley@reddit

Truly never heard anyone say that. In the past there were a very few stand out funny ads that people might mention, but I haven't noticed one of those in years. If they weren't funny, it's just an ad, no one cares unless that's what they do or they're getting some kind of kickback.

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