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Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

politico.eu

111–120 of 202 posts

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#111
post #18

As a EU citizen, I don't care? People are not swayed by political ads. They're swayed by influencers who push political agendas covertly.

I can actually give a very specific real life example of political ads working because I have a friend who was part of the campaign. In Ohio there was a constitutional amendment on the ballot to legalize abortion. The orgs that spent millions of dollars getting it on the ballot were constantly polling to figure where they stand in terms of it passing. As a just in case they made a "break glass" ad campaign which talked about a 10 year old rape victim that had to be driven across state lines to get an abortion. At the 11th hour a few days before the vote they realized it wasn't going to pass. So they took that ad and blasted it across the state, you legitimately couldn't watch TV for more than 30 minutes and not see it at least twice. It covered every streaming service, youtube, facebook ads, tv. The polls went from 48-49% to almost 60% in favor and it passed.

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#114
post #46
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would go even further: banning all ads, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43595269

IMO a bad idea, ads help with discoverability and is one of the most effective mechanism for growth. This includes for small and big businesses. I think it makes more sense to target what kind of ads should be banned (e.g. politics, alcohol, cigarets, religion, etc.) and what ads format should be banned (e.g. loud ads, ads in the subway, etc.)

> what ads format should be banned

Practically all of them unless I've asked to receive them.

I'd absolutely sign up to receive info about new products from certain industry groups, niche product promoters, some stores, et c.

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are conflating slapping ads in people's faces with making your business listed on the white/yellow/whatever pages and allowing people to find you without being a jerk.

Yellow pages, really? Like, let's ban ads and brig back yellow pages", and everything will be solved? And, if you were not aware, how do you think Yellow Pages made money? [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_pages

Not that I think it's a good idea, but ...

You go to Google, type "refrigerator" and you get two buttons

* Please show me only adds, sorted by how much they paid to Larry and Sergey

* Please show me only somewhat organic results, sorted by relevance or whatever, and discount me $1 to pay for the servers and crawers.

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#116
post #48
post #18

As a EU citizen, I don't care? People are not swayed by political ads. They're swayed by influencers who push political agendas covertly.

> People are not swayed by political ads sure

Right? Who is that naive?

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#117
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because you are a HN user, which selects for above average intelligence people (yes, even the webdevs). You are not the type of person who sways election results. Ads work. You don't need carefully crafted subliminal messages, you could write "vote for me" everywhere and it would have a noticeable effect on the election results

> That's because you are a HN user, which selects for above average intelligence people This forum became a parody of itself

Up to and including the snark at web devs. Every engineer I've met who thinks the web is somehow an easier form of software engineering couldn't write software worth a damn in general, let alone make a website. Universally incurious and dumb.

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#118
post #18

As a EU citizen, I don't care? People are not swayed by political ads. They're swayed by influencers who push political agendas covertly.

I would think this is naive to imagine that targeted ads do not have influence when used in large numbers. There is a reason why this market exists. I am happy this law has an effect and potentially opens the doors to other players.

I think this comes from a us perspective in most of Europe political ads consist of a portrait image of the politician and a slogan that gets penetrated to death. We don't have attack ads here most of the time we don't even have ads that transport a message besides this is Dude A from Party A.

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#119
post #18

As a EU citizen, I don't care? People are not swayed by political ads. They're swayed by influencers who push political agendas covertly.

Political ads definitely do sway people. Especially the shit-flinging ads are effective.

The ones where a political figure lays out the bare basics of their programmes don't make a lot of impact, but the shittier the party and the more manipulative their advertising, the more these ads have an effect.

The influencer problem is even bigger, of course.

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#120
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because you are a HN user, which selects for above average intelligence people (yes, even the webdevs). You are not the type of person who sways election results. Ads work. You don't need carefully crafted subliminal messages, you could write "vote for me" everywhere and it would have a noticeable effect on the election results

> That's because you are a HN user, which selects for above average intelligence people This forum became a parody of itself

You may not like the way he put it, but he is correct.
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