I&#x27;ve got two welders (MIG and SMAW aka stick), never looked at a single advertisement. I went to the local welding specialist, outlined what I wanted to do, listened to his advice. Then I went to three more such stores. Then I went to a friend of mine who is an all-position welder in the offshore industry, told him what I wanted to do, listened to his advice. Based on all that I made my decision and bought what I thought I should and have been pretty happy with that choice. Nowhere in this whole affair did &#x27;marketing&#x27; or &#x27;advertising&#x27; play any significant role other than maybe product documentation.<p>Also, at no point during all this would an ad for a welder have made me decide to purchase that particular product because there is no way a broadcast ad could inform me about a product in as much detail and with as much knowledge as the above process could.