Mildly Interesting

19695 readers

1842 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

[email protected]

1402

What If We Made Advertising Illegal? (simone.org)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

385 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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] 2 points 12 hours ago

I sometimes wonder about this. If a company can't stay afloat without being paid for by advertisements, if their product can't make enough money on its own to keep the company working, then is that product that important?

I appreciate it doesn't work that way.

I just think if taxes could pay for water, gas, electric, healthcare, roads and infrastructure etc, then maybe we dont really need a fridge that can make a shopping list for us whilst i play doom on the screen.

Maybe we dont need slap chops and shakeweights.

Maybe we dont need all the crap out there that just isnt important.

Does my phone really need a folding screen or web access? Do we really need social media? Or youtube? In some cases, maybe, yes. But in the majority? No. I dont think we do.