81–90 of 286 posts
This analogy seems weak. In general, this post argues one way while ignoring all the good advertising does. Do cancers typically do good things at their baseline?
All the good advertising does? What are you referring to?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
my local food bank has lines every week
Now imagine the entire society standing in such lines, even the best doctors and brightest engineers, for all basic necessities, not knowing if there's anything left by the time it's their turn.
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/
> [advertising is] a malignant mutation of an idea that efficient markets need a way to connect goods and services with people wanting to buy them.
Every form of manipulation of people through information is a "cancer": advertising, political ideologies, religion, escapist entertainment, etc. The problem is that truth is very hard to establish for those that don't want and don't understand logic. They're "cancers" that people want because they're comfortable with it. Also, if we try to control these cancers by restricting what information is allowed we will crea…
How do you define escapist entertainment specifically, provided you do consider it malicious? I struggle to think of a form of entertainment that isn't on some level a possible escape.
In the book "Fire in the Valley" about the development and early days of the internet there is a great deal of discussion and prescient predictions about where all of this would go - but the business models of walled gardens and pay walls never generated the revenue that charging for clicks did. Honestly it's hard to see how we get to this level of speed and content online without it having been funded by advertising.
Every form of manipulation of people through information is a "cancer": advertising, political ideologies, religion, escapist entertainment, etc. The problem is that truth is very hard to establish for those that don't want and don't understand logic. They're "cancers" that people want because they're comfortable with it. Also, if we try to control these cancers by restricting what information is allowed we will crea…
"The problem is that truth is very hard to establish for those that don't want and don't understand logic" Not every truth is revealed through logic.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"all the good things advertising does" is doing a lot of the leg work without much being specified.
Here's a good that advertising does: letting people know how your product or services address some pressing need.
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.
Most of the arguments made are not about "advertising" per se, but the methods that SOME forms of advertising take and other methods (data mining, phishing, scams) that are either not advertising or are things that are already regulated/illegal but which enforcement actions against are low/non-existent. In the book "Fire in the Valley" about the development and early days of the internet there is a great deal of disc…
This analogy seems weak. In general, this post argues one way while ignoring all the good advertising does. Do cancers typically do good things at their baseline?
The problem is this whole thing could have been gamified into something people want to participate in: I am looking for baby stuff, so its time to launch up The Buy Game. Only inside this game do I see ads for things I am very specifically signalling I am looking for, limiting what I see to what I want, and mayyybbeee I can click on "i feel lucky" to see something new. SOME kind of participatory signal or a negotiation, not shoved down my throat forcefully
Instead it has to be this fucking war, where I know full well I am not going to buy anything i see an ad for, in fact I now keep lists of the most annoying companies to make sure I never ever buy from them. I am considering spending the remaining years of my life making tools to help people get away from this shit