I just assume that anyone who needs to spend a lot on bothering me about their product… is either pushing a really shitty product, or offering it at a really shitty price, because so far that has been the case about 90% of the time.

If it was a good value, people would spontaneously recommend it when appropriate, with only light advertising in places where it makes sense (athletic gear advertised on sports websites, for example). Hell, it doesn’t even have to be all that good a product, just better than the alternatives. I mean look at Linux! :p

It’s so clear when you know what’s going on, but I think most people operate under the assumption that if they constantly hear about it and don’t hear bad things to the same degree, that the thing must be good. Propaganda is everywhere saying exactly that in lots of different ways, so hard to really blame them…