Push marketing is kind of like a push poll combined with "hardsell' tactics.... They form the questions (thrust of the ad) so as to "push" the respondent (buyer) into a set response. They tailor their ads to you individually because they have (or think they have) inside information on the potential buyer..
Here is an example: My very elderly mother recieves about 20 - 30 requests for donations every day in the mail from religious and pseudo religious organizations, and from "save social security" scams. Why? because until I put a stop to it, she was sending about a thousand bucks a month to any one with a good sob story if "Catholic", "Christian", or " save social security" or "conservative" were mentioned on the envelope or in the enclosed plea.
The legitimate religious and fraudulent, pseudo-religious organizations all share / sell their mailing lists with/to each other, and they all know the basic keywords they need to use in order to get donations from their particular lists, and they prey upon people's weaknesses, greed or ignorance in order to enrich themselves.
Amazon.com uses the same techniques to push products to their registered users.... Although there is apparently a BIG flaw in their system somewhere.... They keep trying to PUSH some liberal crap on me... In my "recommendations list" I keep getting Al Franken, hillary and bill clinton books, and streisand CD's recommended to me.
I forgot to include, that, rather than merely presenting facts or even just marketing hype, "push" marketers rely on mere keywords, symbols or basic belief systems to con you out of your money. They pander to weaknesses rather than trying to establish a common ground or offering a solution to an actual need.