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.

  • brax
    6·
    1 day ago

    I’ve literally never understood the advertising industry.

    Like, a company gives another company money to waste bandwidth… How many people even watch ads? As a kid, that’s when you’d leave the TV to get a drink or use the bathroom. As an adult, I run adblockers and haven’t see an advertisement in ages - yet these companies are continuing to spend money on this?

    What’s worse is how they actually think people associate the random shit that plays before/during the content you want to watch to the point that they’re forcing creators to dumb down the content. Like, I get it if the platform itself is shit, but come on. If you REALLY want to know what’s harming your brand, it wouldn’t be the guy saying “shit fuck” 50 times, it would be the fucking advertisement that’s breaking the flow and interrupting the guy saying “shit fuck” 50 times. I’d sooner see people avoiding these products specifically because of the negative association.

    • DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz
      3·
      23 hours ago

      I highly doubt most ads are being run at a loss. The whole point is to generate sales and increase revenue. If ads continue to persist then they are likely doing the job. Lemmy is overwhelmingly on the same page about how we feel about ads and adblockers, but the majority of the internet’s users do not. IOS users don’t have adblockers on their devices. Anyone who uses a chromium browser doesn’t either. Most people really just don’t care. I had a roommate that told me he actually likes having ads because he learns about products he didn’t know he needed! My first thought was “if you don’t know about it, you don’t need it”, but I really don’t think most people think that way. There are a lot of subtle tricks advertisers use to get viewers to think of their products/services long after the ad was seen. I think most ads are very effective at making money.

    • joshthewaster@lemmy.world
      1·
      22 hours ago

      You and I both. But we are not the norm. And advertising works (even on us when we do end up seeing them).

      It’s bizarre to me to be around my parents and others who just let ads play, and watch them, and engage about them. But people just get used to them and everyone thinks THEY aren’t swayed by them. We are though - which is why I would completely support banning ads beyond basic signage for businesses and outside of dedicated locations where I can go when I actually need something.