I see advertising as a necessary evil. It helps small businesses take off and stay afloat (especially when alternatives for being funded aren't viable for them), but at the same time it basically promotes corporate greed by shoving ads down our throats.

Abolishing advertising entirely would be improbable. I just want it to be toned down to the point where we're all comfortable with it. Too much of a good thing inevitably becomes a bad thing. But too little of a good thing is also a bad thing. So things should be taken in moderation. In the case of advertising, the first statement applies; there's way too much of it, it's really in-your-face and disruptive, and we're all getting sick of it.

I've literally never understood the advertising industry.

Like, a company gives another company money to waste bandwidth... How many people even watch ads? As a kid, that's when you'd leave the TV to get a drink or use the bathroom. As an adult, I run adblockers and haven't see an advertisement in ages - yet these companies are continuing to spend money on this?

What's worse is how they actually think people associate the random shit that plays before/during the content you want to watch to the point that they're forcing creators to dumb down the content. Like, I get it if the platform itself is shit, but come on. If you REALLY want to know what's harming your brand, it wouldn't be the guy saying "shit fuck" 50 times, it would be the fucking advertisement that's breaking the flow and interrupting the guy saying "shit fuck" 50 times. I'd sooner see people avoiding these products specifically because of the negative association.

Ad companies are never going to regulate themselves—it's like hoping for heroin dealers to write drug laws.

Actually, I think that's a good idea. Everyone already knows that banning recreational drugs only makes more people want to try them. And seeing how the legal weed system in my home state is controlled entirely by a handful of billionaires who artificially keep prices high, I think it would be a lot wiser to put legalization in the control of the common people.

What a terrible analogy.

I don't like to buy anything I've seen advertised. I just don't trust it

I don't get a lot of ads already, and I could honestly use more in terms of new games and movies coming out. Word of mouth doesn't work great for obscure things either.

I have hated few things in this world as much as advertising. It is one of the few industries I feel is beyond saving and produces nothing of value at all levels. I am of the opinion that advertising is like cancer, whenever it is allowed to get a foothold somewhere it will eventually kill the host. For-profit companies can not resist the easy money promised by advertising, so the only way to combat it is not have it to begin with.

I go out of my way to pay for the things I use with money and not attention if at all possible. I will nearly always favor buying from a company that does not get most of their revenue from advertising, even if it means I pay more for the product and it is a less capable product or service.

How exactly do you define advertising? An overly broad definition would forbid, for example, a dentist from putting a sign in front of their office saying they're a dentist.

Took a trip to Cuba, one of the first things I noticed was lack of billboards and advertising in general. It was quite refreshing.

If you just made it criminal to misrepresent what you are selling then it would be progress. Any measure of truth in advertising would be a plus. None currently exist.