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Adfree Cities

adfreecities.org.uk

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Re: Adfree Cities

#251

Post by MichaelZuo »

digging wrote: post #242
willmadden wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The beneficiaries of roads are much more than motorists. Almost every employer and the government needs roads to operate. The motorists include trucks that keep society functioning. You would have no food, water, or electricity in 1-2 weeks without roads.

Then let private motorists pay their share of the upkeep. I'd throw out a guess that it's upwards of 99%.

The reality is the opposite, heavy trucks and buses are responsible for practically all road damage.

As road wear and tear is proportional to the third or fourth power of axle weight.

Re: Adfree Cities

#252

Post by syndacks »

Ironically, this is an advertisement itself. And you can never ever ban ads because someone might write a comment on an internet forum noting just how delicious an ice cold can of Coke is on a hot day.

Re: Adfree Cities

#253

Post by syndacks »

5evOX5hTZ9mYa9E wrote: post #156

I've been on a tear blocking absolutely all ads in my life, and it has made my life so much more serene and peaceful. The one thing I cannot do anything about is ads in the physical space, which sucks, so this initiative is right up my alley. I'm not in UK, but all I can say is godspeed to this initiative.

You realize HN is one big smattering of advertisements, yea?

Re: Adfree Cities

#254

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

Imagine if a billboard company had a trillion dollar market cap.

Would it be possible to keep them out of a city.

No limit to the number of palms they could grease.

Who knows, governments might resort to antitrust law to stop them.

Re: Adfree Cities

#255

Post by scotty79 »

vlovich123 wrote: post #90
scotty79 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a negative sum game. I'd happily ban all advertising and replaced it with government managed services and products dictionary where suppliers would put their offers with prices. It would also be a hub of technical information about the products and their reviews. Also information about companies operating on the market. Conduct, ownership structure, financial information, everything. Basically all the market inf…

Negative sum for society but zero sum for the players

Producing advertising metrials isn't free. So it's a negative for everybody.

Re: Adfree Cities

#256

Post by scotty79 »

JAlexoid wrote: post #235
scotty79 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a negative sum game. I'd happily ban all advertising and replaced it with government managed services and products dictionary where suppliers would put their offers with prices. It would also be a hub of technical information about the products and their reviews. Also information about companies operating on the market. Conduct, ownership structure, financial information, everything. Basically all the market inf…

And then the likes of Donald comes in and decides, that anyone that didn't support his campaign isn't worthy to be listed in the government "dictionary"(it's directory). Yeah... I'll live with bad advertising, rather than pave the way to 1984.

Government already controls the market. It sets the rules what's allowed and what's not. It might as well do it efficiently and while providing accurate information to the customers.

Re: Adfree Cities

#257

Post by orange-mentor »

JAlexoid wrote: post #189
Tempest1981 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, the ads in Tokyo are unfamiliar, so I can enjoy the colors and energy more. vs say Times Square, where the ads really hit me over the head.

Times Sq is literally the extreme side of ads. It's literally what makes Times Sq - Time Square. Imagine if NYC banned all visual advertising? One of the most iconic sites of NYC would just disappear.

Real New Yorkers kind of loathe Times Square.

Re: Adfree Cities

#258

Post by vlovich123 »

JAlexoid wrote: post #247
vlovich123 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might find this counter at all interesting if not for: A) it stands to reason that if phones are distracting so are billboards which are literally designed to get your attention B) a simple internet search yields all sorts of research into this topic supporting the common sense expectation. As a community, we should strive for higher information commentary maybe? https://usa.streetsblog.org/2022/05/02/study-distrac…

>it stands to reason that if phones are distracting The action of using your phone is distracting, not that phones are distracting. You can absolutely use your phone as a GPS. The process of interaction is the distracting part. >literally designed to get your attention The NIH article actually says literally the opposite, of what you're saying. Billboards aren't distracting enough to completely draw your attention. >…

I mean the NIH conclusion is literally:

> However, this review’s findings suggest that this [billboards are not a distraction] may not be true in all cases. Future research should emphasize the tails of the distribution in addition to average cases, in terms of both the analysis of visual behavior and the complexity of driving tasks. Further research is also needed to understand the effects of billboard design, driver characteristics, and road and traffic context.

The amount of people who text & drive and don't get into any accidents as a result on the road is quite high. Yet we still recognize texting & driving as dangerous. And active billboards are much more distracting as per the NIH paper than passive ones. Lit up bright ones at night that are engaging in some way are going to be more distracting than passive ones during the day.

Re: Adfree Cities

#259

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

sunday_serif wrote: post #23

Not so long ago, I was traveling around Switzerland. During my time in the country, there was always something just a little off, and I couldn’t place what it was. Was it cleaner? Was the architecture just very modernist? Did it have something to do with the season? Eventually, I realized that the difference I was noticing between Switzerland and California (my home state) was that there was simply much less advertis…

In California, billboards are banned in Orange County (where I grew up). I left Orange County almost two decades ago and all the billboards along the freeways are still jarring.

Re: Adfree Cities

#260

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

chankstein38 wrote: post #85

I've never understood why billboards are legal. They're distracting and placed along the roads and highways. In my driving course I remember being told that even so much as talking to a passenger or adjusting the volume of the radio can be dangerous so you should be paying 100% attention to the road. So why are billboards, things that are specifically built, along roads, to draw my attention legal? So let's go adfree…

People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.

- Banksy

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