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Advertising Is a Cancer on Society (2019)

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Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society (2019)

#131

Post by quectophoton »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #83
hermannj314 wrote: post #45

What about advertising for cancer screening? That type of advertising is shown to be cost effective and saves lives [1]. So advertising can be a good thing and a literal cancer-preventer to society. [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4018507/

I guess it depends upon where you draw the line between advertising and informing. The broad definition of "advertising" doesn't restrict it to commercial use, but I think the most common understanding of what it is would . Also, the author makes it clear that they're referring to this sense of the word: > [advertising is] a malignant mutation of an idea that efficient markets need a way to connect goods and services…

> The broad definition of "advertising" doesn't restrict it to commercial use,

Example: The Merriam-Webster for example defines "advertisement" as, literally, as "1 : a public notice".

Still,

> but I think the most common understanding of what it is would.

... is probably the reason for their "especially" paragraph and examples, right below the definition.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society (2019)

#132

Post by Zanfa »

acc_297 wrote: post #67

The below section resonates: lately YouTube has figured out I am in my mid-twenties and considering for the first time how best to save money for a secure/stable future. The number of ADs I see now not so subtly implying that I can expect to “lose big” or “rent forever” if I don’t subscribe to QuestTrade/WealthSimple/… It’s just frustrating to know that someone put time and thought into making me and a million other…

> The below section resonates: lately YouTube has figured out I am in my mid-twenties and considering for the first time how best to save money for a secure/stable future.

This is funny since YouTube especially has never been able to figure out my demographics. To this day it keeps showing me ads for female hygiene products, cleaning supplies, quick fashion brands or scam ads in Russian, a language I don't speak. None of this has ever been relevant to me in any way whatsoever.

They should just go back to showing exclusively contextual ads, they'd have better odds of hitting a topic I might actually be even remotely in the target market for.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society (2019)

#133

Post by neom »

t0bia_s wrote: post #120

Advertising of product is proof that product itself is not good enough to be sold. Good thing is, that you can block it at home. Bad thing is, that if you avoid commercial advertising, you are struggle with income as freelance audiovisual producer.

I'm curious how that is true? Advertising is generally a competitive move in a marketing playbook of a GTM motion.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society (2019)

#134

Post by [deleted] »

jonnycat wrote: post #28

I fully agree with the sentiment, and yet marvel at the apparent lack of alternatives for so many business models. I'm mildly surprised, for example, that micro-payments for web content are still not a (widespread) thing. Consumers hate ads, but they hate paying for things even more apparently.

[deleted]

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society (2019)

#135

Post by AnimalMuppet »

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #63

Like cancer, I think it's possible to split ads into two categories: Benign and malignant. Benign ads are like ads for toothpaste, Febreeze, or airlines. Malignant ads are, to give but two examples, for things like gambling and pharmaceuticals. The pharmaceutical business, in particular, was much more widely trusted and had far higher public favorability ratings in the old days when their advertising to the public wa…

I think you put the split at the wrong point. It's not just what is being advertised; it's also how.

Take lite beer, for example. Ignoring the issue of whether beer fits into your "vice" category, you could make a case for benign advertising of lite beer: "Hey, there's this kind of beer that has less calories than regular beer. If you like beer but worry about the calories, maybe this is for you."

Or you can have malignant advertising for it: "Drink this brand of lite beer, and all the pretty girls will be all over you. Drink some other brand and you'll be all alone like a loser." Stealing a quote, from which I don't have the source handy: This kind of advertising tries to make the person you are envy the person you could be with their product. In other words, it tries to steal your satisfaction and then offers to sell it back to you. That's malignant no matter what the product is.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society (2019)

#136

Post by [deleted] »

somenameforme wrote: post #123

One critical possibility was unmentioned. There seems to be a very strong argument that it's advertising that is driving declines in fertility rates. The entire point of the modern advertising machine is to generate endless desires and wants that one might not otherwise have, always chasing the next product - basically to create consumerist societies. The most common reason middle class+ people say they aren't having…

[deleted]

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society (2019)

#137

Post by canadaduane »

otikik wrote: post #56

After reading the symptoms of the disease, I would say that Advertising could qualify as "Flu on Society". Adverse effects, some people might die of it, but not as fatal or devastating as cancer. Arguably advertising has some benefits for society as well. I have at least found some products that I really wanted and enjoyed thanks to their ads (not many compared to the number of ads I have seen through all my life. St…

I appreciate this alternate diagnosis :) At what point would you say the "flu" becomes a more virulent strain that is dangerous enough to do something more than tolerate?

For example, more and more sexualized content in advertising (esp. harming teen girls [1]), or forced ads built-in to a browser sidebar (esp. harming the poor [2]), or ads on the surface of each school desk in 3rd grade (esp. harming the young [3]). Anxiety about the future, depression, etc. can be tied to advertising.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18444705/ [2] https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&d... [3] https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/132/5/958/31...

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society (2019)

#138

Post by someothherguyy »

somenameforme wrote: post #123

One critical possibility was unmentioned. There seems to be a very strong argument that it's advertising that is driving declines in fertility rates. The entire point of the modern advertising machine is to generate endless desires and wants that one might not otherwise have, always chasing the next product - basically to create consumerist societies. The most common reason middle class+ people say they aren't having…

> The most common reason middle class+ people say they aren't having children is because they don't have enough money, but it's simply untrue.

Source?

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/07/25/the-exp...

This seems to say because they "don't want to"

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society (2019)

#139

Post by keiferski »

cess11 wrote: post #126
keiferski wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the Supreme Court, they do. Regardless, this isn't really an answer. What metrics are you using to determine if an ad is misleading? Take for example the early 2000s BMW ads which were short films with various celebrities and actors. Are these "misleading" and not allowed? Again, these aren't even remotely implementable ideas without complete state control over the media.

If you mean the US Supreme Court, they could just stop being insane and change that ruling, because, as I pointed out, corporations aren't people. They are fictions. It's like claiming it is a free speech issue that people in the Wheel of Time books aren't allowed to name the evil threatening the world. Why not in the same way it's determined for product information on the packaging? No, it just requires the state to…

So your solution is to have the government control all communications coming from corporations? This is again, extremely draconian.

Corporations aren't fictions, they are organizations of people and resources...just like the government.

You also didn't answer my question: where is the line between art and advertising drawn? If I make a movie and use BMWs in it, and BMW gives me those cars for free to use, am I breaking the advertising law?

As I said in the initial comment, all of these proposed solutions are absolute nonsense. If you dislike advertising's effect on the world, come up with a better way to manage the attention problem. Government control of the media isn't one of them.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society (2019)

#140

Post by redbell »

(2019)

> SEO, AKA. gaming the search engines. Hugely popular. Often involves creating nonsense sites, and spamming websites and web forums with comments. It pollutes search results for more obscure queries, generally wasting people's time.

Having this essay backdated to pre-LLMs era, I'm wondering what the author would write when he witnesses people using AI-generated content to boost SEO these days.

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