Do you like me?

Watching TV, listening to the radio, reading the newspaper, spending time online, of course we are inundated with messages. What follows is obvious, but, it seems, lost to so many marketers out there. People are loathe to buy a product or service from a company or person they loathe. That being said, it's fairly striking how few ads are actually likable. In fact, the 2007 Cone Cause Evolution Survey claims that two-thirds of American's consider a company's business practices when deciding what to by. (As reported in Advertising Age.)
http://www.adage.com/article?article_id=119214

I'd go a step further and say this: how you portray yourself in an ad is also a business practice. That is, if you're crass and ugly, manipulative and deceptive, people will be less apt to like you and therefore less apt to buy your product. OK. We all know what happens next. Unlikable ads stop performing so the client and agency panic and say something like, "we have to dial up the responsiveness." In so doing they make the ads even less likable. And in short order, someone's head gets lopped off.

Ads are, often, representational stand-ins for people. You don't buy from unlikable people. Why would you buy from an unlikable ad?