this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
1417 points (98.2% liked)

Mildly Interesting

19995 readers
1124 users here now

This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.

This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?

Just post some stuff and don't spam.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 272 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

The web has been cleaned with uBlock Origin. Doing that IRL would be great. And for every stupid counter argument (I've seen those on HackerNews), I don't tolerate brain washing.

The most stupid argument I've seen is from an American who said "what if you don't know about the effects of a drug that could save your life?" Well, that's the job of the doctor. Your society has failed if you rely on marketing to eat random chemical dangerous stuff.

[–] [email protected] 85 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

"what if you don't know about the effects of a drug that could save your life?"

lol what? No way anyone says that with a straight face

[–] [email protected] 88 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

5 minutes ago on Hacker News, among a lot of stupid stuff like "your life is empty without having ads all around you."

Reference for fun: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43596333

[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I love that in Cyberpunk 2077 they're is often a channel on called "just ads". Of course in pure cyberpunk style those ads can be horrific.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

There are shopping channels in many countries (or at least paid cable television) which are literally just ads. In classic cyberpunk style, it's a reflection of the dystopian present.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

That's not an ad, it's the "Scamming old people by phone" show.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

They’re on HN acting like Googling and getting WebMD is uüuber rare

[–] [email protected] 58 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

When I watch a US sport, I'm blown away that the ads are all medical, banking/insurance, cars, and maybe fast food. It's so weird.

[–] OutlierBlue 25 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Don't forget personal injury or liability lawyers.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

What’s a normal selection of sports ads look like elsewhere?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

Every time I watch premier league it’s just gambling ads nonstop lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I was going to note it down as I was watching F1 at the time of writing that comment. There was a kids hospital charity, a food charity, a car, other sport, and a travel/tourism ad.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 weeks ago

The most stupid argument I’ve seen is from an American who said “what if you don’t know about the effects of a drug that could save your life?” Well, that’s the job of the doctor.

Wow, even if we imagine some different situation where information about a new development, service or creation is needed, that's what reviews and journalism are supposed to cover, not advertisement. (In b4: the observation that those have tragically been becoming more and more indistinguishable from advertising.)

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

In fact the pervasive drug commercials were illegal until the 1990s because why would you target the patient rather than the doctor?

[–] OutlierBlue 21 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They are still illegal in many countries.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago

As they should be

[–] lemmyng 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The most stupid argument I've seen is from an American who said "what if you don't know about the effects of a drug that could save your life?"

If only there was a system of interconnected knowledge bases where new information could be published and indexed for easy lookup... Nah what am I saying, who would have interest in such a thing...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Don't be silly, no-one knows what a library is these days! They're all stuck on that internet thing.