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What If We Made Advertising Illegal? (simone.org)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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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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[–] 84 points 2 years ago (12 children)

The economy should exist to serve real needs of the people. All that advertisement does is create a fake desire for consumption which simply wastes respurces.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    There is some awareness effect, too. If I like burgers and see a listing for a new burger place in my neighborhood, learning about a potential new place I'd like to include in my going-out rotation feels like a win. If I need a home repair and see a neighbor with a yard sign for a local contractor, that's helpful in compiling a list of potential companies to check out.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    It would be totally sufficient if those things are listed in search engines or maps. Not as ads for other searches but as actual results when you actually search for that stuff. If you like burgers it would be no problem for you to type "burger near me" into your favourite search engines once in a while if you feel like something new. Same for home repair etc.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    Getting rid of advertising in a capitalist society would be devastating for all new and small businesses. Start an IT company, tow truck company, Trash removal, plumber, electrician, pest, all dead. Really any company that isnt already known would likely die, and the current large companies would be the only ones that exist. Also what counts as advertising, am I going to jail for telling my friend about a new game I tried? That's advertising.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    You're absolutely right. Any small business left would beg big corporations for buyouts, for pennies on the dollar. Small time influencers would skirt it by the millions. It'd make cyberpunk fiction look tame.

    It might be better if some "standard catalog" was popularized, but still a calamity.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    That's advertising. The entire phone book was a sold adventure. Jail, prison, what is the punishment for advertising. I think people have forgotten what advertising is. I ask you you favorite movie, you answer, advertising. If you tell me Lemmy is a decent place, advertising. Any app, game, movie, music, software, hardware, car, plant, advertising. Stop talking about any object if you want ALL advertising to be illegal as the description says

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (2 children)

    bear in mind that the linked article expands and clarifies that it doesn't mean banning all ads, it's is talking about banning specifically paid ads (i.e. the advertised thing is spending money to be shown) and/or third-party ads (i.e. the advertised thing being shown in places that don't already refer to them). So word of mouth is fine, a business catalog book is fine, all comparison/customer review/keyword search sites are fine, etc. The one thing I can think about is the smaller companies and businesses finding it much harder to gain traction, but word of mouth would replace advertisements and word of mouth is already quite effective - see the very site we're talking on right now!

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  • [–] 0 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Curious how you landed in the past, haha. I saw your response and couldn't remember what it was about. Yeah it was mostly a dumb comment I probably made while drunk.

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