A Cat's Aspiration

Cats rock! I never get tired of looking at them.

transference - the advertiser shows you an image that you have strong affective associations with, then they toss in their product to generate an assocative link in your brain.

Cat -> Cute -> Lottery

According to Donald Olding Hebb "cells that fire together wire together". The first time you see this ad there is a metabolic processes which ever so slightly connects the neurons for Cat & Cute up with the neurons for Russian Lottery. If you see this on television, it will probably be during a 30m or 1h block of time, and the ad will run every commercial break, exposing you to the technique multiple times in a single sitting. The repeated exposure has a compounding effect on the associative link. The actual process is known as Long-Term Potentiation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_potentiation

The saddest part is that this very deliberate and back-handed way of promoting a product results in a consumer who asserts "I don't know why I like them, I just do, now leave me alone."

@ Ryan S
Welcome to the world of advertising...

The only way to make sure you are not just buying certain stuff because you happen to have seen some stupid ad is by deliberately NOT buying stuff if you remember seeing ads for it, which is what I do (if there is choice).
Before you say: but you'll be missing out on good stuff: it does not make a single difference. Most of the time you are actually saving money.
This does not take care of the stuff you do not remember seeing ads for, but what can you do.

PS: I don't have a TV and I don't buy magazines and I have ad blocking for my browser, so there is still stuff I can actually buy without feeling like a doll manipulated by advertising strings. ;)

(How people can still watch TV is beyond me. And if they cut off my internet I'll go back to books, I used to read 5 books a week before I got online.)

Why not go back to books now? Whiners.

@ted

Saying that I don't like ads makes me a whiner?
I am not allowed to go on the internet if I block ads with my internet browser?

Those are the only conclusions I can draw from your comment.

If that's what you wanted to say I'm afraid it may be too late for you; you have been zombified.