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Adfree Cities

adfreecities.org.uk

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Re: Adfree Cities

#41

Post by docdeek »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #11
docdeek wrote: post #4

The award of the contract for the outdoor advertising space (bus shelters, roadside space) in my city was tied to providing and maintaining a cheap metro-area wide bike sharing scheme. For 30ish euros a year I get unlimited 45 minute trips on bikes that are widely available, well maintained, and easy to use. In 2022 there were more than 10 million trips taken on these hire bikes and nearly 84,000 annual subscribers.…

It's not a good trade, there shouldn't be a monopoly on public ads, local businesses should be able to reach consumers without having to go through a monopolist that captures all of the value.

The ad space exists and the city owns all the ad space. They either get in the business of pricing it and selling it themselves, or they contract that business out. In this case, a condition of the contract was you have to pay for the bike scheme.

Re: Adfree Cities

#42

Post by _Algernon_ »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #9

The fact that you can advertise in cities is the reason that big tech doesn't capture 100% of profits in every single market. Advertising in cities, from billboards to flyers to stickers is the only way to reach people directly, without going through an intermediary big tech monopoly. I have a sense that the people most likely to support this thing also whine a lot about big tech, so this is just another bullet point…

I doubt this is true, but would be interested in seeing evidence of the contrary.

Based on my anecdotal observations 99% of advertisements I see in my city are by gigantic international conglomerates: Coca Cola, Disney, H&M, HBO and so on. I don't recall seeing a local or small business advertising (ignoring signs on or near their own store front of course).

If anything it seems advertising works to entrench the existing players.

Re: Adfree Cities

#43

Post by Tempest1981 »

tylervigen wrote: post #6

I have personally gotten very aggressive at removing as many ads from my life as I can. I pay for the "premium" version of everything I can to remove ads (Spotify, YouTube, podcast subscriptions) and use adblocker aggressively. It's so much nicer than the alternative. There are two places where ads remain: 1) Social media where the ads are integrated and not blocked (Facebook, YouTube in-video promos) 2) Billboards i…

Do you watch any sports on TV?

The amount of ads packed into an NBA basketball game on TV is startling and exhausting:

  - each player's jersey
  - arena walls
  - courtside walls (tv screens)
  - projected onto the court floor (updated each minute)
  - on the side and top of the backboard 
  - most TV graphics ("Taco Bell play of the game")
  - split-screen ads during free-throws
  - traditional commercials during time-outs

Re: Adfree Cities

#44

Post by AnimalMuppet »

NittLion78 wrote: post #28
tylervigen wrote: post #6

I have personally gotten very aggressive at removing as many ads from my life as I can. I pay for the "premium" version of everything I can to remove ads (Spotify, YouTube, podcast subscriptions) and use adblocker aggressively. It's so much nicer than the alternative. There are two places where ads remain: 1) Social media where the ads are integrated and not blocked (Facebook, YouTube in-video promos) 2) Billboards i…

Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, and Maine all do not allow for billboard advertisement, so at least there are a few places you can go for respite.

Some states (Iowa, at least, maybe Nebraska?) seem to have a rule that billboards have to be a certain distance away from the road - a fairly large distance. You have to work to read them. It makes them much easier to ignore.

I don't know if that's the rule for all roads, or just for interstates. I don't know if it's for driver safety if they veer off the road, or for avoiding distraction, or just to limit advertising. But I like it.

Re: Adfree Cities

#45

Post by rambambram »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #9

The fact that you can advertise in cities is the reason that big tech doesn't capture 100% of profits in every single market. Advertising in cities, from billboards to flyers to stickers is the only way to reach people directly, without going through an intermediary big tech monopoly. I have a sense that the people most likely to support this thing also whine a lot about big tech, so this is just another bullet point…

I don't like the billboards in my city (it's light pollution and it distracts me from driving at night), but I also have to agree with you. I came at a point where I had to do some marketing/advertisement for my website system and instead of throwing money in the black hole of Google and Facebook, I opted for addressed postal mail on one hand and placing some small billboards around my city. The results were mixed, but it felt good to not being dependent on online marketing.

Re: Adfree Cities

#46

Post by anonporridge »

I've had friends observe that I'm sometimes extremely oblivious to public signage that gives important information that I should really be paying attention to, or looking around lost to figure out my way when a directing sign is right in my face.

Perhaps some of that is that my head is too much in the clouds, but I suspect a huge part of it is that the overabundance of ads everywhere trying to manufacture desire has conditioned me to filter out most public signage.

At least in my lived experience, the noise to signal ratio of information out in public is way too high.

Re: Adfree Cities

#47

Post by AnimalMuppet »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #9

The fact that you can advertise in cities is the reason that big tech doesn't capture 100% of profits in every single market. Advertising in cities, from billboards to flyers to stickers is the only way to reach people directly, without going through an intermediary big tech monopoly. I have a sense that the people most likely to support this thing also whine a lot about big tech, so this is just another bullet point…

Where I'm from, billboards are another monopoly. Sure, they're not the big tech monopoly, but is that the part that matters?

Re: Adfree Cities

#48

Post by andrewfromx »

Aerbil313 wrote: post #10

Ban all ads. All of them, they all are junk info our brains are not designed to handle.

free speech in the USA prevents this. What do you define as "ad". Can I talk to the person behind me in line at starbucks and tell them how I feel about the new iphone? Am I advertising to them? What if I work for apple? Can I wear a tshirt that says "iphone are great!" Ban that??

Re: Adfree Cities

#49

Post by AnimalMuppet »

ponector wrote: post #20
amadeuspagel wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a good trade, there shouldn't be a monopoly on public ads, local businesses should be able to reach consumers without having to go through a monopolist that captures all of the value.

The alternative is to not have a cheap popular bikeshare system. Also with monopolist it is really easy to keep some standards, quality of the ads.

False dichotomy. The alternative is to have a cheap popular bikeshare system supported by taxes.

[Edit to reply to okr, because I'm rate-limited:

Well, then, make the users of the bikes pay the full cost of the bike service.

As it is, you're pushing ads in everyone's face, whether or not they use the bike. Also no thanks.]

Re: Adfree Cities

#50

Post by throwup238 »

tylervigen wrote: post #6

I have personally gotten very aggressive at removing as many ads from my life as I can. I pay for the "premium" version of everything I can to remove ads (Spotify, YouTube, podcast subscriptions) and use adblocker aggressively. It's so much nicer than the alternative. There are two places where ads remain: 1) Social media where the ads are integrated and not blocked (Facebook, YouTube in-video promos) 2) Billboards i…

> But I cannot think of a single time I have ever made any purchase based on any billboard. I would love if more municipalities clamped down on these.

In California the billboards are now predominantly cannabis and casinos.

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