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.

  • @[email protected]
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    8213 days ago

    The web has been cleaned with uBlock Origin. Doing that IRL would be great. And for every stupid counter argument (I’ve seen those on HackerNews), I don’t tolerate brain washing.

    The most stupid argument I’ve seen is from an American who said “what if you don’t know about the effects of a drug that could save your life?” Well, that’s the job of the doctor. Your society has failed if you rely on marketing to eat random chemical dangerous stuff.

    • @[email protected]
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      2713 days ago

      “what if you don’t know about the effects of a drug that could save your life?”

      lol what? No way anyone says that with a straight face

    • @[email protected]
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      1513 days ago

      When I watch a US sport, I’m blown away that the ads are all medical, banking/insurance, cars, and maybe fast food. It’s so weird.

        • JJROKCZ
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          713 days ago

          Every time I watch premier league it’s just gambling ads nonstop lol

        • @[email protected]
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          113 days ago

          I was going to note it down as I was watching F1 at the time of writing that comment. There was a kids hospital charity, a food charity, a car, other sport, and a travel/tourism ad.

    • @[email protected]
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      613 days ago

      The most stupid argument I’ve seen is from an American who said “what if you don’t know about the effects of a drug that could save your life?” Well, that’s the job of the doctor.

      Wow, even if we imagine some different situation where information about a new development, service or creation is needed, that’s what reviews and journalism are supposed to cover, not advertisement. (In b4: the observation that those have tragically been becoming more and more indistinguishable from advertising.)

    • @[email protected]
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      613 days ago

      In fact the pervasive drug commercials were illegal until the 1990s because why would you target the patient rather than the doctor?

    • lemmyng
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      513 days ago

      The most stupid argument I’ve seen is from an American who said “what if you don’t know about the effects of a drug that could save your life?”

      If only there was a system of interconnected knowledge bases where new information could be published and indexed for easy lookup… Nah what am I saying, who would have interest in such a thing…

      • comfy
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        112 days ago

        Don’t be silly, no-one knows what a library is these days! They’re all stuck on that internet thing.