Conversely, we could try not fiddling with it: https://youtu.be/6txA3pI0xJI And playing minesweeper.
Why? Because it will self-regulate? Because people will vote with their wallets?
That's how we got leaded gasoline for 60+ years.
We need legal controls on web advertising
51–60 of 171 posts
Re: We need legal controls on web advertising
#52I am beginning to believe that advertising (at all, on any medium) is an evil we need to do without. The "free stuff" that we get in return is never without consequences, as we're finding out. The "hey we built a thing you might want to buy" function can be done in different forms, better, I think. Probably by newspapers. I think we could start by taxing all advertising revenue by, say, 50%.
Advertising is in some ways an equalizer. If you can pay then you get an audience. Doesn't matter if you're a popular brand or not. Doesn't matter if you know celebrities to hawk your stuff. Doesn't matter if you're famous or not. Doesn't matter if you have the right connections or not.
Re: We need legal controls on web advertising
#53If think ad targeting should be illegal, because if you know who is going to see your ad, you can easily manipulate them into signing up or buying the product by exploiting characteristics that person may have.
Re: We need legal controls on web advertising
#54It always bother me that ads on tv/paper/radio are highly controlled, regulated (at least in France), with maximum time and restricted content. But ads in internet are just wild! You can have 1 minute of ads for less than 10 minutes of content, plus all the banners, sponsored content etc... I wish the Europe would regulate this and impose a maximum exposition time for ads, like we have for tv. (e.g: in France 6-9 min…
In my country (Spain) there's an awful ongoing trend of betting houses popping up everywhere, both physical and online (sports bet, online poker, etc). It's awful because the online ads are frequently directed at teenagers, using famous personalities like musicians or sport players as bait, and trying to sell it as the next step after gaming, and something math based where you can learn and use your skill to win a fo…
That sounds exactly like wallstreetbets.
Re: We need legal controls on web advertising
#55I am beginning to believe that advertising (at all, on any medium) is an evil we need to do without. The "free stuff" that we get in return is never without consequences, as we're finding out. The "hey we built a thing you might want to buy" function can be done in different forms, better, I think. Probably by newspapers. I think we could start by taxing all advertising revenue by, say, 50%.
Advertising is in some ways an equalizer. If you can pay then you get an audience. Doesn't matter if you're a popular brand or not. Doesn't matter if you know celebrities to hawk your stuff. Doesn't matter if you're famous or not. Doesn't matter if you have the right connections or not.
>Advertising is in some ways an equalizer. If you can pay then you get an audience.
You've contradicted yourself. Not everyone can pay. Obviously advertising heavily favors the wealthy - it is not an egalitarian system.
And it is a blight on our society even without considering that.
Re: We need legal controls on web advertising
#56Internet ads as we see them today are absolutely disastrous for people with ADHD.
When even people who don't have to deal with this disability are finding these ads way too distracting, it can't be hard to imagine just how bad it is for us invalids.
Taking away my ability to use an ad blocker - like what Google is trying to do - would be like removing all wheelchair ramps. It would have a massive negative impact on my quality of life, and would have far reaching consequences for my productivity levels.
Meta: Posted this earlier in response to a top level comment but figured it's better on its own.
Re: We need legal controls on web advertising
#57Conversely, we could try not fiddling with it: https://youtu.be/6txA3pI0xJI And playing minesweeper.
Why? Because it will self-regulate? Because people will vote with their wallets? That's how we got leaded gasoline for 60+ years.
Leaded gasoline and the Internet are hardly comparable. But go ahead and make straw man arguments.
Re: We need legal controls on web advertising
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is plenty of price comparison websites that one can use right now that allow one to search for a specific product and compare price offers. One would search for a massage chair on there and find that some are cheaper than others and read the reviews to make an educated guess about whether the extra price is worth it.
So, still ads but different name. These price engines (every one I've seen) are all affiliate hubs; they list only products that pay for the click. Any reviews on such sites are biased in similar ways to the gaming in reviews in major sites like Amazon. Now, one could say, "so what? Most folks know that, useful info still, and it's better than ads!". But is it? At least the ad is an overt block of color, but affiliat…
It depends who's paying. If the product seller pays then it's an advert. If the product buyer pays it's not. The difference in economic incentives is... stark.
Ad supported media has a similarly skewed structure. If I'm paying for media I better like it. If adverts pay for it, the key is lots of people spend lots of time looking at it.
Re: We need legal controls on web advertising
#59I am beginning to believe that advertising (at all, on any medium) is an evil we need to do without. The "free stuff" that we get in return is never without consequences, as we're finding out. The "hey we built a thing you might want to buy" function can be done in different forms, better, I think. Probably by newspapers. I think we could start by taxing all advertising revenue by, say, 50%.
Advertising is in some ways an equalizer. If you can pay then you get an audience. Doesn't matter if you're a popular brand or not. Doesn't matter if you know celebrities to hawk your stuff. Doesn't matter if you're famous or not. Doesn't matter if you have the right connections or not.
But the playing field is not level. You will compete for ad space against big corps that can easily spend millions on advertising and can do much better targeting than yourself.
Re: We need legal controls on web advertising
#60I am beginning to believe that advertising (at all, on any medium) is an evil we need to do without. The "free stuff" that we get in return is never without consequences, as we're finding out. The "hey we built a thing you might want to buy" function can be done in different forms, better, I think. Probably by newspapers. I think we could start by taxing all advertising revenue by, say, 50%.
Strong agree. Advertising should be outlawed entirely. Or rather, corporate propaganda should be outlawed. Psychologically manipulating people for profit is horrible, I cannot comprehend how it's become normalized. This is our brains on capitalism, I guess.