What if we banned all advertising? Not regulate it—abolish it. This proposal would transform manipulation machines, and maybe save democracy itself. A thought experiment worth considering.

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.

      • fermuch@lemmy.ml
        2·
        3 days ago

        Thank you for the links. I’ve been there recently, and everything felt cold and gray. I could not really understand why, since all of Brazil feels so charming, green and vivid. Maybe your argument explains a part of it: since there is no advertising, there aren’t many colors on the streets (it might’ve been my impression, tho’).

          • fermuch@lemmy.ml
            2·
            2 days ago

            There are! And a lot too!

            The thing is: São Paulo is a city made mostly to walk. Going by car is a nightmare, and public transportation (the metro) is quite good. The center of it all, the most iconic place, the “avenida paulista” is quite iconic, but full of gray. The main attraction are the buildings, which are huge. I’d say most of them are banks. And the more you go around, the more you feel the need of green places.

            It’s a big city, there are some huge murals and street art, but it feels cold. As if it was put there just to check a mark on a “good city needs this” list, but not as natural evolution of the city.

            The things I’ve felt there:

            • Huge city, truly makes you feel small
            • The floor, walls and sky are all gray, all the time
            • People are stressed and running to go from place A to place B
            • Lots of homeless people, everywhere. Not a shelter around nor anything close to help those people.