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Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

jacek.zlydach.pl

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Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#211

Post by blfr »

w-ll wrote: post #171
dheera wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd really love to have an AR real-life ad blocker. Replace all billboards with works of art. Separately I think advertising will have to find new forms of expression that are less repulsive. I won't want to block ads if they are actually fun and interesting.

What makes you think the company that makes the best AR wouldn't put ads in it. The top 3 in the field Microsoft, Facebook, and Google to some extent, would never let you disable ads let alone override them with something you wish.

This is demonstrably not true today because Google wrote the operating system of my phone and I block all ads on it.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#212

Post by dheera »

w-ll wrote: post #171
dheera wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd really love to have an AR real-life ad blocker. Replace all billboards with works of art. Separately I think advertising will have to find new forms of expression that are less repulsive. I won't want to block ads if they are actually fun and interesting.

What makes you think the company that makes the best AR wouldn't put ads in it. The top 3 in the field Microsoft, Facebook, and Google to some extent, would never let you disable ads let alone override them with something you wish.

If I own a piece of physical hardware, they can't dictate how it runs software. Hardware ultimately listens to its owner, which is me, not them.

If they try to interfere with that, I will try every route I can to ensure my personal freedom.

For phones you can do most of what you want with LineageOS and Xposed; for AR headsets I'm sure something similar can be done and it's just a matter of time before hackers get together and make freedom a reality.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#213

Post by velp »

zentiggr wrote: post #93
Aperocky wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you define "Something useful" though? The advertisement money eventually makes it to Google, broadcasters, sites, TV-channels, sports events and people running those organization in term gets more money to spend on [Potentially useful stuff]. It's not like the money magically vanishes to never be seen again, and business to business transaction like this make the money flow faster instead of slower. Economy is…

> It's not like the money magically vanishes to never be seen again No, it remains in corporate budgets, which, without all the marketing spend, can be shifted to better wages, charity work, capital investments, better wages, safety and health initiatives, better wages...

....and without some of that marketing spend, revenue would decrease (or be co-opted by competition) and then we're back at the same problem. Companies probably over-index on advertising spend, but it's not as simple as "look no ads, now we can raise everyone's salary 2x"

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#214

Post by cletus »

I really detest the general "hate" of advertising. Don't get me wrong: I'm a zealous ad blocker, largely because advertising can (and does) go over the line of being intrusive. Also I think the dirty secret of ad tech is ad personalization has pretty limited value.

But advertising in general is how people find out about things they might need or want. There might be a bakery 2 miles away you'll really enjoy. How will you find out about it if they don't advertise? Being strictly reliant on word-of-mouth is woefully naive (IMHO).

Take Google search, the user is literally looking for something. Why isn't an ad an appropriate response to someone searching for a search for "ozark jetski for hire"? As long as ads and organic search results are clearly differentiated, IMHO this is totally fine.

Certain behaviours obviously need to be restricted, like I'm a big fan of outright outlawing advertising to children. But advertising in general? In what world is that reasonable?

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#215

Post by FussyZeus »

dooglius wrote: post #185
joshgel wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a doctor, I'm all for banning soft drinks, recognizing that it probably will never happen. But, the health externalities associated with drinking such beverages should get priced in and be used to offset eventual health complications. This is not easy because no one likes taxes, but you get what you pay for.

How is there an externality? It's not like smoking where it affects other people.

Why does it have to? Coke as a company is responsible for some horrifying effects on the world. Health effects, economic depression in the developing world, ongoing environmental harm. And for what? Sugar water. Not space travel, not energy, not transportation, not safer aircraft or cars, not saving lives, no. For fucking. Sugar. Water.

And they're far from the only company burning energy, effort, time and knowledge to accomplish nothing but profits at the expense of virtually everything else touching them.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#216

Post by blodovnik »

AlexandrB wrote: post #196
blodovnik wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I note the author is very much involved in companies projects and social media platforms that all depend on advertising. http://jacek.zlydach.pl/index.html I'd respect his position more if he was not on LinkedIn or Facebook and did not work on commercial projects.

Do I really need to link Mr. Gotcha on HN[1]? I think LinkedIn is despicable but I have a LinkedIn account because it’s basically expected that you have one for recruiting purposes by many employers. [1] https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha

So great strength of conviction except for self interest.

This is exactly why it's a childish opinion that ignores the interconnectedness of our society.

Advertising is baked in to the fabric of how our social systems work in an interconnected way.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#217

Post by oneil512 »

criddell wrote: post #208
oneil512 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, literally all free content, videos, media, blog posts, whatever you want to call it, has to rely on advertising if they want to make a profit.

How do you explain Wikipedia?

if they want to make a profit.

Wikipedia is a non-profit.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#218

Post by mft_ »

homonculus1 wrote: post #179
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Refined sugar is incredibly toxic. It doesn't just rot your teeth, make you obese, and eventually turns you into a Type 2 diabetic, but it also raises the risk of heart disease, strokes, Alzheimer's, and many other conditions. The direct economic costs - health care costs, lost productivity caused by illness - are immense, and the soda and junk food industries make no contribution towards them. There are also les…

It hasn't done any of those things to me, however, so kindly get your hands off mine and out of my business please.

Are you sure it hasn't raised your risk?

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#219

Post by philwelch »

solidsnack9000 wrote: post #3

Maybe some of it...but without any advertising at all it would be really hard to know what products or out there or even that there is a restaurant on the other end of the block.

A restaurant on the end of the block can be discovered with even a minimal amount of awareness of one’s surroundings. Products can be displayed in stores or listed in catalogues.

Re: Advertising Is a Cancer on Society

#220

Post by dudul »

Freak_NL wrote: post #183
dudul wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I moved from Europe to the US I just couldn't believe it. In my home country there is one commercial break during a 2 hour movie. It's a little longer than the breaks in the US, but there is only one. There is also one during a 45minute TV show, and none during a 20minute show. I can't tell you the shock when I started watching American TV. I couldn't believe people were putting up with this.

Back when television shows made in the US were still made for cable and had to facilitate a bunch of advertisement blocks it used to be really obvious when you watched one of those shows in a country that didn't advertise quite as much. The show would wrap up a scene to prepare for a pause, and then instantly resume with a small recap of the action it ended with. That was the queue for us non-US viewers to know when…

I actually realized that as well after my relocation. I finally understood why every 4 minutes there was a 1 second black screen during the show :)
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