this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025

1414 points (98.1% liked)

Mildly Interesting

19961 readers

662 users here now

This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.

This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?

Just post some stuff and don't spam.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

1414

What If We Made Advertising Illegal? (simone.org)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

389 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

I’ve had adblockers on my browsers for years and pay for ad-free streaming. I easily went over a decade without seeing an ad on a screen in my own home. But when I’d go to a restaurant that had TVs (or to my mom’s house where she’d run the TV constantly) I’d marvel at how unwatchable it was. Just a constant interruption.

My wife has a friend who produced a TV series for Tubi and so we signed up to check it out and, wow. I had to tap out of watching it because of the ads. Just completely obnoxious and loud.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Let’s ban all persuasive advertising! No reason not to let people make a list of features or something, like a notification, but that’s it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How exactly do you define advertising? An overly broad definition would forbid, for example, a dentist from putting a sign in front of their office saying they're a dentist.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Paying somone else to advertise for you. You yourself holding up a sign promoting yourself is fine, paying someone else to hold up a sign for you is illegal.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

all business would fail.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

All businesses would fail if they don't evolve from the current structure.

A new ecosystem would arise, and if it's held stable long enough, it would become the new norm.

It's kinda like how news stations report on minimum wages in the US, "if we increase minimum wages, X% of small businesses will fail." I try to single out and avoid businesses that operate that way, because the workers are miserable from the low pay, me as the consumer is miserable from the poor customer service, and the owner is miserable because he isn't taking home 'enough' money, even though the business is net positive cash flow.

Propping up the inefficient practices is holding everything back, if they're pruned then new growth can take hold, and form new standards.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

ok fascinating question mr scientist, how do you sell products to people who don't know you exist.

That's literally the fundamental problem to solve here. If you want to argue for banning predatory advertising, sure, but you could also just install an ad blocker.

“if we increase minimum wages, X% of small businesses will fail.” I try to single out and avoid businesses that operate that way, because the workers are miserable from the low pay, me as the consumer is miserable from the poor customer service, and the owner is miserable because he isn’t taking home ‘enough’ money, even though the business is net positive cash flow.

in this case, the business fails, unless the business finds a way to pull in more total revenue, and pay their employees more, which gives them a better selection of employees, though it's generally true that for a small business the largest capital cost is labor. So being able to pay yourself, and other employees where possible, less money saves you a lot of recurring cost. Especially if you don't get consistent business.

Propping up the inefficient practices is holding everything back, if they’re pruned then new growth can take hold, and form new standards.

the problem here, is that you need a good model that indicates better complete performance of the new system, as opposed to the old system, nobody has an effective model economy for anything other than capitalism, because capitalism literally "just works" it has problems, sure, but you can fix them, or work on fixing them at least. A brand new economy may not be able to get off the ground in the first place, without failing completely.

also to be clear, in most cases "net positive cashflow" isn't a great spot to be in, what you want is consistent revenue high enough that you can pay off all of your expenses, consistently, i.e. "adjusted net positive cash flow"

Sure you can get net positive cashflow from paying everybody less, but you would be better served by paying them more. That would incentivize them to do a better job, and prevent you from paying tax on that.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Then we’d have a centrally-planned economy I guess. I don’t really see how a free market would work without advertising.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

At the very least it comes down to regulation of speech. Advertising is speech. Even if you got rid of like actual commercials, you'll just shift advertising towards product placement and utilization rather than over advertisements.

Definitely a complex thing.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

#YES, PLEASE.

I have been fighting advertising in my own way since the early 2000s:

I abandoned broadcast radio in the mid-1990s. I can’t recall the last time I turned on a car radio.
I abandoned broadcast TV in 2001
I jumped on board with Adblock the moment it was released for Phoenix (now Firefox) back in 2004
The lone streaming service I actually subscribe to is the cheapest non-advertising tier available
Torrenting covers many of the remaining gaps
Even my Internet Radio stations are chosen primarily through lack of advertising.

It’s gotten to the point where stumbling across an ad is the mental equivalent to nails on a chalkboard.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Ultimately some ads will become illegal as legit advertisers (large corps), get pissed off at all the dick pill ads mixed in with their content.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

I see advertising as a necessary evil. It helps small businesses take off and stay afloat (especially when alternatives for being funded aren't viable for them), but at the same time it basically promotes corporate greed by shoving ads down our throats.

Abolishing advertising entirely would be improbable. I just want it to be toned down to the point where we're all comfortable with it. Too much of a good thing inevitably becomes a bad thing. But too little of a good thing is also a bad thing. So things should be taken in moderation. In the case of advertising, the first statement applies; there's way too much of it, it's really in-your-face and disruptive, and we're all getting sick of it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The thing is I don't think I would mind advertising if it wasn't shoved down my throat 24/7. The fact I can't read a webpage without ads blocking everything, I can't watch TV without more than half of the show's runtime being ads in and out of segments, I can't even step outside without seeing the billboard or another 5 ads shoved in my mailbox!

I get 15 some-odd emails a day from different companies trying to get me to buy things. I block them and they pop up with a different email address. I can't even open my email without ads popping up masquerading as actual messages (Gmail). Don't get me started on the entire Google app thing.

I can't open an online map without getting SPONSERED listings. And places I use the app to order from try to advertise me their own food WHILE I'M ORDERING. Panda Express started asking me if I want a subscription to Starz or whatever.

NO. NO. NO.

I'm exhausted. I want to go to a store without being immediately inundated with ads or sellers. "Buy this!" NO. LEAVE ME ALONE.

I'm overwhelmed. I'm overstimulated. I'm done. I don't care how "quirky" or "flashy" or "hip" your ads are. I refuse to buy anything I see ads for now. It's too much. Shut up.

TL;DR: we need controls and limits to who, what, where, and how things are advertised. It should be an enforcable crime to have ads louder than a certain decibel for one. But it's not enforced and fines aren't more than a drop in the bucket. I doubt I'll see it in ny lifetime.

load more comments