I think a better thing to do would be to outlaw algorithmic feeds where monetization is via advertising. If subscription based that is fine. The incentive for sub based monetization is to keep you long enough to continue subscribing. For ads it is to keep you on as long as possible which trends towards divisive / fear / anger inducing content.
What if we made advertising illegal?
431–440 of 1001 posts
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#432I can’t stop thinking about this article. I spent a long time in ad tech before switching to broader systems engineering. The author captures something I've struggled to articulate to friends and family about why I left the industry. The part that really struck me was framing advertising and propaganda as essentially the same mechanism - just with different masters. Having built targeting systems myself, this rings p…
> imagine a world without advertising I can't because a world with magic and world peace is more realistic and believable. It's impossible. How do you even define advertising? If you define it conservatively, then advertising will skirt through the loopholes. If you define it liberally, then you have an unfair, authoritarian system that will definitely be selectively enforced against political enemies. And in all cas…
Even if the authoritarianism to enforce it weren't by itself undesirable, banning advertising creates a situation where incumbents (known names) have a significant advantage over new entrants to a market.
It's worth analyzing why a society wants that and who benefits from it.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#433This begs the question: how could you reliably distinguish advertising from other forms of free speech? The courts already distinguish "commercial speech" as a class of speech. Would we prevent all forms of commercial speech? What about a waiter asking you "would you like to try a rosé with that dish? It pairs very well together." Is that "advertising" that would need to be outlawed? What about giving out free sample…
We don't need to go into absurd discussions in order to prevent 99% of the harm that comes from modern advertising. The line is clear: is money being exchanged in order to promote a product? That's advertising. Someone I know mentioning a product because they want to recommend it to me? Not advertising. Giving out "free" samples? Presumably someone is being paid to do that, so advertising. We can later quibble about…
The definition in the second sentence would ban sponsorship of public television, among other things. I don't think that plan nets out to a positive.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#434I can’t stop thinking about this article. I spent a long time in ad tech before switching to broader systems engineering. The author captures something I've struggled to articulate to friends and family about why I left the industry. The part that really struck me was framing advertising and propaganda as essentially the same mechanism - just with different masters. Having built targeting systems myself, this rings p…
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Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#435This begs the question: how could you reliably distinguish advertising from other forms of free speech? The courts already distinguish "commercial speech" as a class of speech. Would we prevent all forms of commercial speech? What about a waiter asking you "would you like to try a rosé with that dish? It pairs very well together." Is that "advertising" that would need to be outlawed? What about giving out free sample…
This is precisely the sort of statement that derails the discussion and makes it impossible to even have. I imagine there’s a name for this sort of thing, perhaps some exquisitely long German word? So lets do this: ban all ads in print, video, and in-public. Make the fine so high that you’re going to have to declare bankruptcy and close up shop. Or just straight up revoke corporate charters. There’s your line. I’m ha…
One man's propaganda is another man's truth-to-power.
There are dangerous consequences to handing the government the authority to ban public communication (even about mouthwash brands) without very careful scrutiny.
Imagine if you couldn't advertise energy alternatives because oil and gas came first and, with advertising banned, we can't even talk about the relative merits of installing solar vs. buying coal-made grid electricity. The status quo will maintain until the planet cooks.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#436> Any form of paid and/or third-party advertising would become illegal. Full stop.
I am currently selling my house. He's basically saying this would become impossible. This whole post has some real im14andthisisdeep energy.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#437I can’t stop thinking about this article. I spent a long time in ad tech before switching to broader systems engineering. The author captures something I've struggled to articulate to friends and family about why I left the industry. The part that really struck me was framing advertising and propaganda as essentially the same mechanism - just with different masters. Having built targeting systems myself, this rings p…
Propaganda does not need advertising to disseminate itself, particularly not in 2025. There are multiple channels. Limiting one—advertising—just moves the flow to other channels.
Yes. Not all business models utilize public advertising. For example, MLMs like Amway and LuLaRoe.
Advertising didn’t exist for most of history because mass media didn’t exist. Advertising is part and parcel of mass media.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the communications industry there are SOME fairly bright definitions: - Advertising and marketing are when an entity pays some other entity to transmit content - Public relations is when an entity, without paying , causes another entity to transmit content - Public affairs is when an entity causes a governmental entity to consume specific content at minimum, up to possibly influencing decisions. It should go witho…
>- Advertising and marketing are when an entity pays some other entity to transmit content So all usage of the internet would apply?
I guess I could have been more specific.
...an entity A pays some other entity B to transmit some specific content to a third party to induce the third party to take action that benefits the paying entity A.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you can do relatively easily is to control the physical format of advertising. For example, consider how rare "billboards" are outside of the USA. Or towns in various places that prohibit signage that is not in the same plane as the edge of the building (i.e. no sticky-outy signs). Or for that matter, consider Berlin, which has banned all non-cultural advertising on public transportation. Yes, there's some edge…
Billboards being rare outside of the US seems quite incorrect. The developing world is full of billboards, and places in Europe like Milan have some wild Samsung billboards.
OK, let me restate that: there are places (even a few within the USA) that have very few or no billboards, because they are banned.
Re: What if we made advertising illegal?
#440I can’t stop thinking about this article. I spent a long time in ad tech before switching to broader systems engineering. The author captures something I've struggled to articulate to friends and family about why I left the industry. The part that really struck me was framing advertising and propaganda as essentially the same mechanism - just with different masters. Having built targeting systems myself, this rings p…
> imagine a world without advertising I can't because a world with magic and world peace is more realistic and believable. It's impossible. How do you even define advertising? If you define it conservatively, then advertising will skirt through the loopholes. If you define it liberally, then you have an unfair, authoritarian system that will definitely be selectively enforced against political enemies. And in all cas…
As a fantasy it sounds nice but it immediately hits the wall of the 1st amendment.