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Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?

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Re: Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?

#41

Post by Mirioron »

spodek wrote: post #18

The images of Sao Paolo before and after banning billboards https://99percentinvisible.org/article/clean-city-law-secret... illustrate the difference in a different space. Personally, I found the difference greater and more lovely than I expected and support reducing advertising. Other cities are doing it. The parties that would suffer most are shareholders of companies that advertise products most people probably wo…

I doubt that Coca-Cola, Gatorade, and McDonald's would he the ones on the losing side of this. Their products are already everywhere. It's hard not to see them in a city, especially Coca-Cola.

Re: Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?

#42

Post by PatentlyDC123 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #9

How would such a law define targeted advertising? (Serious question.)

I think you've hit on the most important question. The definitions and compliance guidelines sound like thorny issues. Companies, individuals, and the government will all twist any reasonable, "gray" interpretations of the bill to their favor. Maybe a bill with definitions and protections similar to HIPAA, but less strict? However, the strict compliance and penalties of a bill like HIPAA might be one of the main reasons companies work so hard to comply with it.

Re: Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?

#43

Post by woodrowbarlow »

ghaff wrote: post #20
coldpie wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When people say "targeted ads" these days, that's not what they're talking about. Perhaps it's a poor term. "Targeted ads" means ads that are targeted to a specific user, as opposed to a publication.

Yes, the tools are different and (very much in theory) more precisely targeted. But, at the end of the day, you're still mostly targeting populations based on their propensity to spend money with you. So you now target me with sports gear ads not just because I subscribe to Sports Illustrated but because I've bought sports gear and I'm in the Male 18-25 demographic. I agree that attempts to target at an individual le…

let me make a point about why i see one type of targeting as benign and the other (which i suppose could be called 'collaborative targeted marketing', because it involves sharing or aggregating data from multiple sources) as dangerous.

if i subscribe to a magazine about fishing and it includes an advertisement about some new fishing lure, well... it's obvious why the fishing magazine might think i'm into fishing.

but if i just bought a pack of diapers at walmart and then start seeing mailers for baby monitors from jc penny, that's when i start to get nervous.

my fear is of a world where i call up a health insurance provider, ask for a quote, and they say "according to facebook market research, your hobbies include BASE jumping based on the videos you watch on youtube. therefore your premium rate will be [$xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.00].".

Re: Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?

#44

Post by Retric »

icedchai wrote: post #36

I'd argue that targeted advertising is actually a benefit to consumers and businesses a like. Consumers get ads for things they might actually buy, businesses waste less advertising spend.

Consumers don’t magically get more money to spend so as long as everyone has access it’s equally effective at scale. The only real difference is it’s ability to shift where advertising dollars are spent.

Re: Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?

#45

Post by helsinkiandrew »

spodek wrote: post #18

The images of Sao Paolo before and after banning billboards https://99percentinvisible.org/article/clean-city-law-secret... illustrate the difference in a different space. Personally, I found the difference greater and more lovely than I expected and support reducing advertising. Other cities are doing it. The parties that would suffer most are shareholders of companies that advertise products most people probably wo…

Online, without personalization it's the other way around

Local and niche businesses can only advertise on Facebook/Google Ads because their clientele can be defined and targeted. Without targeting we'll be watching ads for Coca-Cola and McDonalds and other brands that have 'mass' appeal.

Re: Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?

#46

Post by Mirioron »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #12

The argument for massive Pigouvian taxes on advertising seems much clearer. Advertising imposes massive costs on society and the viewers. These costs aren't borne by the advertiser, so they should be captured through massive taxes and put to good use. And many brands wouldn't feel much of an impact: what matters to Coke is that it spends more than Pepsi. If their $6B on advertising only buys 1/10th as many ads as it…

On the flip-side, businesses that rely on ad revenue would disappear. That means most of the commonly used websites. No more Google, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, almost all news sites etc. This also means that everything goes back to essentially subscription only and this without a credit card don't get much access to stuff (like it used to be).

Re: Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?

#47

Post by clarry »

avalys wrote: post #39
clarry wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Niche products become nonviable. If you can't reach out to your customers, they have to reach out to you. Umm, I think this is largely the reality for niche products right now, with advertising. I don't see ads for niche products, and I don't see producers of niche products paying for ads because a small campaign wouldn't reach the right audience and a large campaign would be too expensive for a niche product.

This is exactly the problem that highly targeted advertising solves. I see ads for relatively niche products fairly often.

YMMV. I don't recall seeing anything remotely relevant, so maybe it's not a working solution.

Re: Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?

#48

Post by avalys »

throwaway5466 wrote: post #27
PopeDotNinja wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how that would be possible.

It's very simple actually. No more sponsors, no more covering every square meter of public space with brands, no more commercials on TV, no more ads on websites. People will have to find other ways to make money, no one's entitled to a business model.

Most (in fact, almost all) advertisements are not on “public space”, they’re on private properties.

Re: Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?

#50

Post by Mirioron »

Retric wrote: post #44
icedchai wrote: post #36

I'd argue that targeted advertising is actually a benefit to consumers and businesses a like. Consumers get ads for things they might actually buy, businesses waste less advertising spend.

Consumers don’t magically get more money to spend so as long as everyone has access it’s equally effective at scale. The only real difference is it’s ability to shift where advertising dollars are spent.

But consumers could get better services and products, because they'll know that there's a choice to be had. I always go to the same place to have my hair cut, because it's the only one I know. Maybe there are better options for me -cheaper, closer, faster, better. But I don't know about them and I'll probably never know about them as I don't really care enough about it to go out of my way to look into it. If someone threw alternatives in my face then I might consider them.
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