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What If We Made Advertising Illegal? (simone.org)
submitted 1 week ago by sundrei@lemmy.sdf.org 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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[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

Pretty dumb article if you spend more than a second thinking about this issue.

The entire historical premise that we "didn't have ads" is so fucking incorrect and reeks of appeal to nature. Yeah we didn't have tv ads but we had monarchs and elite that played the same role. How is paying of some sleezy high up salesman is different from a Google search ad? If anything the latter is more ethically apt.

I'd take democracy with ads over whatever the fuck that alternative timeline that polices "unpaid word of mouth"

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 week ago

Even word of mouth advertising is advertising. You should really try out this new makeup I got. Jail

this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
604 points (97.5% liked)

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