The idea feels like sci-fi because you’re so used to it, imagining ads gone feels like asking to outlaw gravity. But humanity had been free of current forms of advertising for 99.9% of its existence. Word-of-mouth and community networks worked just fine. First-party websites and online communities would now improve on that.

The traditional argument pro-advertising—that it provides consumers with necessary information—hasn’t been valid for decades.

  • the16bitgamer@programming.dev
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    2 hours ago

    As someone who had designed and attempted to sell things. On of my key takeaways has always been the lack of awareness or knowledge of my things exists.

    Granted if I put a 50ft build board in the sky it wouldn’t change much. But if I did more than I did… or am doing it would help.

    I saw a metaphor in this thread comparing advertising to Smoking. But I think Sugar is a better comparison. Is it needed? No. But a little will go a long way, and some dishes wouldn’t exists without it. Add to much and it ruins the flavour of the dish and isn’t healthy for the consumer.

    What is needed is balance and where everything has hyper sugar in it isn’t good for anyone. So I do we need a rethink, but eliminating it outright isn’t the solution.

  • Lit@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    I think some kind of mix approach, example some countries ban some kind of advertising. Advertising medical prescription drugs and treatments is illegal in some countries.

    Alternatively companies should pay me to watch their advertisements. Organize events to pay people to watch their advertisement.

    With smart glasses AR and AI we should be able to block out all billboard, posters or it could go the opposite way glasses show all kind of adverts… hmm. We need open source AR smart glasses with adblock.

  • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    I’m definitely in favor of a ban of advertising in public spaces. Spaces that are owned by the collective ‘us’ should remain free of it. Like public squares, roadways, public transit, etc. Those should be commercial free.

    A total ban would be wildly difficult and impractical. It would also widen certain gaps like the rural-urban divide. How would someone in a rural area know an iPhone exists, if the nearest store is a hundred miles away? Or other products that might be beneficial to them?

    I live in a city of 160.000 people. And even here, we simply don’t have every store or every product available. Advertising broadens that horizon considerably.

  • n7gifmdn
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    2 hours ago

    You’d put a lot of people out of work.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      1 hour ago

      A lot of people have jobs that aren’t really necessary, and exist so that the working class doesn’t revolt too hard under capitalism.

  • ZMoney@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Sao Paolo did this in 2006.

    Under the cult of the “Invisible Hand of the Free Market”, the prevailing ideology of neoclassical economics and the modern global economy, advertising is not necessary. Why should a firm have to convince me to buy anything if the market dictates prices and the flow of commodities? Yet here we are.

  • Robbity@lemm.ee
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    7 hours ago

    People talk about tech giants, but Facebook and Google are actually advertising giants. They pour much more money into their advertising than they do into r&d.

    Many brands have a cost structure where, for each product sold, more money goes to advertising than to the person who actually made the product. Sometimes 2 or 3 times more. That’s where the battle for attention is taking us, a place where attention from customers is worth much more than the effort of the worker.

    None of this is inevitable, advertising should be heavily taxed and regulated.

  • sfu@lemm.ee
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    6 hours ago

    Los Angeles county vs Orange county.

    LA allows billboards, OC doesn’t. It just feels so much cleaner and like a breath of fresh air as you drive from LA into OC.

    • JoeBigelow
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      2 hours ago

      Same with Maine, state banned billboards. Makes it super weird when you head south and get assaulted by them in Mass

  • Lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 hours ago

    I would like meaningful regulation on advertising. Something to the effect of “STOP BLASTING MY FACE WITH ADS EVERY CHANCE YOU GET YOU SCUMFUCKERS”

    There is a gas station nearby who runs non-stop unmutable ads. I don’t go to that gas station anymore.

    • sfu@lemm.ee
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      6 hours ago

      I HATE when I am forced to watch commercials, in front of my face on the gas pump, while I am pumping gas into my vehicle. I should really get a discount on my gas for that.

  • synicalx@lemm.ee
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    9 hours ago

    It should be text only, purely factual, and very limited.

    “We are blah, selling blah for $x, at $location”

  • Eugenia@lemmy.ml
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    7 hours ago

    No, advertising is useful to small businesses and big. What needs to happen, is actual thoughtful regulation, as with everything else.

  • Christobootswiththepher@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    I concur.

    Some places limit advertising more than others. Banned on footpaths and dangerous spots. What about sales persons? How do you brand a product? I think it would have to be well defined.

    I am ok with technical information being provided by a staff member. So much shit is peddled through marketing. As the scientist designing the product, I want to tell them the truth, customers love the truth, in this regard. I think banning deception and conning further would be a good way. And fuck this debt model of economics. And how about universities turn back into noble education organisations, not cocksucking psuedo-businesses.

    I think govts/politicians like keeping the vague open because they use it, too. Their propaganda departments are cucked with good fact checking teams.