this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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The idea feels like sci-fi because you're so used to it, imagining ads gone feels like asking to outlaw gravity. But humanity had been free of current forms of advertising for 99.9% of its existence. Word-of-mouth and community networks worked just fine. First-party websites and online communities would now improve on that.

The traditional argument pro-advertising—that it provides consumers with necessary information—hasn't been valid for decades.

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[–] meliaesc@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (4 children)

How do you propose new businesses will work? Genuinely looking for discussion.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

However that would work, i dont care. Open source software has next to no marketing and I've found it all through chat groups, etc.

I've found my local super market and bakery simply by walking by

I buy toothpaste by trying a few and sticking by one I like

I never watch commercials, I don't do advertising or marketing, and I'm missing out on nothing

[–] Lyrl@lemm.ee 7 points 1 month ago

The lines get really blurry.

Manufacturers pay grocery stores shelving fees, both to be stocked in that store at all and for specific locations (eye level shelving is prime real estate). That the toothpaste is on the shelf there at all for you to see it and decide to try it... is basically due to a paid advertisement.

Bakeries often put signs about openings or events at the end of the block. Do you think that should be banned, too? What about a billboard in their own parking lot?

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You'rr under arrest for advertising open source software lol. It's illegal to discuss products as promotion is advertising.

[–] El_Scapacabra@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago

I'm not the person you were replying to and I also don't have a good answer to the question, but man, the giddiness I feel at the idea of yeeting every single sales department on the planet directly into the stratosphere... Pure euphoria.

[–] Tehdastehdas@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

There used to be a business catalog book called “yellow pages”. Now there are map applications, price comparison sites, customer review sites, and keyword search engines. All of those make advertisements unnecessary.

[–] MellowYellow13@lemmy.world -4 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

How do they grow if they can't tell anyone about their products or services?

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My local bakery doesn't have that issue

They just make great bread so people go there by the hundreds

Open source software doesn't have that problem, I found everything I love

Once I need a product I can go to a forum or chat group and find reviews

[–] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Your local bakery can rely on local customers who likely walk right by it. They produce inexpensive products that are relatively easy and quick to produce.

Not every business is like that. Maybe they spent a lot of money upfront on research and development and need to shift x units by a certain time to make it work financially? How could they do that if they have no physical presence on the high street and without telling people at scale that they exist?

Open source software is generally free, written by volunteers. There isn't the financial pressure to sell and recover costs by a certain time.

[–] DisguisedJoker@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Perhaps there is a difference in listing a service in some sort of index, like the phone book, versus techniques intended to develop a need (or want) where there wasn't one otherwise, like an iPod commercial.

[–] MellowYellow13@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

By telling them, who said you cant? Communication and advertisement are two different things.

Its crazy that by no advertisement you immediately jumped to you cant tell anyone about anything

[–] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

By telling them, who said you cant?

By telling who? And How?

[–] MellowYellow13@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Communication isnt advertisement. Depends on the type of business dude. Theres a thing called word of mouth.

[–] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 1 points 1 month ago

And how do you do that en-masse? How do you spread the word to people by word of mouth who haven't heard of your product/service?