What if we made advertising illegal?
simone.org
What if we made advertising illegal?
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Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#2I used to know one of the great ad execs from Mama Bell and he told me nothing happens in this world until a person decides to trade a dollar for something.
How do they decide such things? How do people become aware of what things are available for purchase?
Another thing he said was that they knew half of their ad spend was "wasted" on people who would never buy what you have to sell.
The feeling I get from the author is that targeted advertising is the problem, which also has a 50%+ waste factor (due in large part to fraud). I suspect it is unlikely all the complexities of contemporary marketing and advertising are worth it.
Also worth considering to what extent the author's website is a form of advertisement itself.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#3I used to know one of the great ad execs from Mama Bell and he told me nothing happens in this world until a person decides to trade a dollar for something. How do they decide such things? How do people become aware of what things are available for purchase? Another thing he said was that they knew half of their ad spend was "wasted" on people who would never buy what you have to sell. The feeling I get from the auth…
That ad exec certainly had a myopic point of view. Just like the old saying, "If you wear shoes, the world is covered with leather."
For sure, our economy depends on buying and selling, and buying and selling depends on advertising. Like other things that can be abused, advertising needs regulation.
But to say that "nothing" happens without money changing hands ignores a vast swath of the human experience. I pity the person who thinks that everything has a price in dollars and cents.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#4I used to know one of the great ad execs from Mama Bell and he told me nothing happens in this world until a person decides to trade a dollar for something. How do they decide such things? How do people become aware of what things are available for purchase? Another thing he said was that they knew half of their ad spend was "wasted" on people who would never buy what you have to sell. The feeling I get from the auth…
That ad exec certainly had a myopic point of view. Just like the old saying, "If you wear shoes, the world is covered with leather." For sure, our economy depends on buying and selling, and buying and selling depends on advertising. Like other things that can be abused, advertising needs regulation. But to say that "nothing" happens without money changing hands ignores a vast swath of the human experience. I pity the…
I believe the comment about trading a dollar is more a comment on money being the medium of exchange. Humanity had a history without money, and while some bartering still exists, by and large we live in a society where money is how we trade in situations where you have something I want, but I lack something you want.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#5I used to know one of the great ad execs from Mama Bell and he told me nothing happens in this world until a person decides to trade a dollar for something. How do they decide such things? How do people become aware of what things are available for purchase? Another thing he said was that they knew half of their ad spend was "wasted" on people who would never buy what you have to sell. The feeling I get from the auth…
Flip side of it is - I love not seeing advertisements, of any type.
Sponsorblock and uBlock Origin makes YouTube a whole different experience. Locally backed-up or on-demand TV shows are so much more bingeable than the ones on DVR. I love watching livestreams and not being pulled aside for a 30 second sponsored interruption. It makes me giddy with excitement paying for software and media that does not have any advertisement in it whatsoever.
The big picture is great and all, but watching something like the Super Bowl you get a sense of how wasteful all that marketing is. If half those companies reinvested their ad budget into their product, they'd be more likely to earn my money than if they jumped over a dolphin with a jet ski to promote H&R Block or Polymarket.
Marketing has always been one big, slippery slope of transgression that could always benefit from a reset.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#6I used to know one of the great ad execs from Mama Bell and he told me nothing happens in this world until a person decides to trade a dollar for something. How do they decide such things? How do people become aware of what things are available for purchase? Another thing he said was that they knew half of their ad spend was "wasted" on people who would never buy what you have to sell. The feeling I get from the auth…
Flip side of it is - I love not seeing advertisements, of any type. Sponsorblock and uBlock Origin makes YouTube a whole different experience. Locally backed-up or on-demand TV shows are so much more bingeable than the ones on DVR. I love watching livestreams and not being pulled aside for a 30 second sponsored interruption. It makes me giddy with excitement paying for software and media that does not have any advert…
I wholeheartedly agree and put effort into not seeing ads as well. At the same time, there are companies I like doing business with that I would never have known about were it not for their advertising, marketing, and/or sponsorships.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
Flip side of it is - I love not seeing advertisements, of any type. Sponsorblock and uBlock Origin makes YouTube a whole different experience. Locally backed-up or on-demand TV shows are so much more bingeable than the ones on DVR. I love watching livestreams and not being pulled aside for a 30 second sponsored interruption. It makes me giddy with excitement paying for software and media that does not have any advert…
I wholeheartedly agree and put effort into not seeing ads as well. At the same time, there are companies I like doing business with that I would never have known about were it not for their advertising, marketing, and/or sponsorships.
Legislating advertisement as an opt-in experience would probably satisfy both of us.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#8I used to know one of the great ad execs from Mama Bell and he told me nothing happens in this world until a person decides to trade a dollar for something. How do they decide such things? How do people become aware of what things are available for purchase? Another thing he said was that they knew half of their ad spend was "wasted" on people who would never buy what you have to sell. The feeling I get from the auth…
> feeling I get from the author is that targeted advertising is the problem
Non-targeted advertising is also a blight. If you've never visited a place where billboards are illegal, it may be hard to imagine what a relief it is to be free of them.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#9I used to know one of the great ad execs from Mama Bell and he told me nothing happens in this world until a person decides to trade a dollar for something. How do they decide such things? How do people become aware of what things are available for purchase? Another thing he said was that they knew half of their ad spend was "wasted" on people who would never buy what you have to sell. The feeling I get from the auth…
That ad exec certainly had a myopic point of view. Just like the old saying, "If you wear shoes, the world is covered with leather." For sure, our economy depends on buying and selling, and buying and selling depends on advertising. Like other things that can be abused, advertising needs regulation. But to say that "nothing" happens without money changing hands ignores a vast swath of the human experience. I pity the…
“Nothing” can easily be understood as a rhetorical emphasis in that quote.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Flip side of it is - I love not seeing advertisements, of any type. Sponsorblock and uBlock Origin makes YouTube a whole different experience. Locally backed-up or on-demand TV shows are so much more bingeable than the ones on DVR. I love watching livestreams and not being pulled aside for a 30 second sponsored interruption. It makes me giddy with excitement paying for software and media that does not have any advert…
I wholeheartedly agree and put effort into not seeing ads as well. At the same time, there are companies I like doing business with that I would never have known about were it not for their advertising, marketing, and/or sponsorships.
If only there were some institution full of independently minded individuals who could tell us, plainly and evenhandedly, without undue influence, about products we might be interested in.