Advertising Is a Cancer on Society • Hacker News Board

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#151

Post by zentiggr » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 7:56 PM UTC

starpilot wrote: post #2

We get rid of it, Google/Facebook/etc. shut down. While social media is of arguable benefits, Google has provided incalculable value to the world. Ads are the magic money fountain that give them the power to organize all of human knowledge, a phenomenal resource anyone can tap.

So we split Google, Facebook, etc into two parts - content with no ads, and the "yellow pages" that are ads only, for when you want to go find product info.

2nd option... add a useful/not useful flag to every search result, so users can flag blogspam, content farms, etc and help keep the results useful.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#152

Post by pearapps » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 7:56 PM UTC

alexott wrote: post #145

wpietri wrote: post #23

He doesn't quite say it by name, but most advertising is a classic arms race. Especially given how the internet now makes information easily available, a great deal of advertising is about manipulating consumers to pick company A's products over those from competitors B, C, and D. This forces those other companies to spend to get and keep customers. It's pure waste. For example, everybody on the planet is now familia…

There are examples when companies are doing well without advertising: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oettinger_Brewery

The wikipedia page literally lists them as a sponsor of a team:

"From 2006 until 2018, Oettinger was the official sponsor of Rockets, a professional basketball club based in Gotha. The Rockets played as "Oettinger Rockets" in Germany's first distribution, the Basketball Bundesliga.[5]"

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#153

Post by stronglikedan » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 7:56 PM UTC

t34543 wrote: post #22

If you stop watching ads for awhile and go back to it you’ll see how mind numbing it all really is. I aggressively block ads - no exceptions.

I used to just ignore them. Now I click the shit out of the ones with pretty women modelling skimpy clothing. More and more, those types of ads dominate my targeted ad stream and it's beautiful.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#154

Post by cm2012 » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 7:57 PM UTC

JoshTriplett wrote: post #12

solidsnack9000 wrote: post #3

Maybe some of it...but without any advertising at all it would be really hard to know what products or out there or even that there is a restaurant on the other end of the block.

> without any advertising at all it would be really hard to know what products or out there or even that there is a restaurant on the other end of the block There's a huge difference between reviews, directories, and advertising. You can seek out information without being pushed advertisements. Another facet: whether payment from the entity being promoted is involved and affects placement.

Most review sites and directories are funded by advertising.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#155

Post by criddell » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 7:57 PM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #27

tathougies wrote: post #5

No its not. I had to move quickly last week. Needed to find someone who could take some stuff. Remembers the 1800gotjunk commercials. They fixed my problem. I guess I could have used google but without ads google wouldn't exist so...

I would be happy to pay Google for ad-free search. Even $5/mo from me would be much more than they get from me now, and it would cover costs for thousands of unpaid users.

I don't know what Google's average revenue per user is, but Facebook supposedly is around $8 / month. I would expect Google to be in the same ball park.

$5/mo probably isn't enough for Google.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#156

Post by japhyr » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 7:57 PM UTC

I live in a small town in southeast Alaska, and we are exposed to much less advertising than people in more densely populated parts of the US. We have no billboards, we don't have any large box stores, and we don't have cable TV in our house. When we travel, my 8yo is fascinated by all the advertising around us. He finds a lot of it funny because he hasn't been overexposed to all the standard tricks that advertisers pull.

But, he is already deeply frustrated by the intrusiveness of online ads. He is old enough and informed enough to be aware that he's being manipulated, but not old enough yet to consistently spot the manipulation that online advertisers use on his own.

A little advertising is a good thing. Inundation is not a good thing, and we are far past the inundation stage.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#157

Post by blodovnik » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 7:58 PM UTC

c3534l wrote: post #134

blodovnik wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Computers. And if you want to be pedantic, you'll say but they would exist for military etc!!!!! But if you're not being pedantic you'll agree that most stuff relating to computing exists in its current form in lockstep with yhe ability of companies to sell and therefore advertise their products. Not just computers but everything related to them too.

How on Earth did you come to the conclusion that computers wouldn't exist without advertising?

You literally replied after reading only the first word of what I wrote.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#158

Post by philwelch » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 7:58 PM UTC

dymk wrote: post #114

mrob wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikipedia provides more value to me than Google, and it doesn't rely on adverts. And static websites with mostly text are very cheap to host now, and there are lots of people willing to share their knowledge without adverts. That was how it was usually done before the rise of web advertising, and old-fashioned websites still exist. You don't even need search engines to find them; there are volunteer-run directory pro…

Wikipedia almost goes under every year if their banners are to be believed. They have to beg for money to stay open. That's not a ringing endorsement of an "ad-less" model.

Wikipedia is lying through their teeth and has tons of expenses well beyond keeping the servers running.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#159

Post by mike_ivanov » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 7:58 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #127

perfunctory wrote: post #109

Compulsory quote "Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we w…

Maybe I'm misinterpreting but didn't the movie show that everything Tyler does and says is 100% wrong?

Of course not, what he says is incidental. This could have been set in a completely different context without much loss. As I understood it, it's all about a split, obsessed soul figuring how to become whole - mostly in wrong ways.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#160

Post by ndiscussion » Wed, Jul 31, 2019, 7:58 PM UTC

solipsism wrote: post #111

joshgel wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a doctor, I'm all for banning soft drinks, recognizing that it probably will never happen. But, the health externalities associated with drinking such beverages should get priced in and be used to offset eventual health complications. This is not easy because no one likes taxes, but you get what you pay for.

May we be allowed cake and ice cream or would you ban those as well? Maybe you can get a special license if it's a birthday?

You can have it - just don't expect me to pay for your coronary. A long and painful death that costs millions. Was it worth it?