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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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[-] Thorned_Rose@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Oh please gods yes. Advertising is violence and even though most of my life is now ad free, I still can't avoid the advertising scourge being shoved into my eyeballs every time I leave my house. It would be a blessed weight lifted from my already tired brain to never see a single ad again.

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[-] Opinionhaver@feddit.uk 1 points 2 months ago

Word of mouth works for someone with an already established customer base but I can't even imagine how I could have gotten my business going when I started a year ago without ads. That's how 99% of my customers found out about me. This is physical flyers though - I don't do online advertising except for maintaining a some kind of social media presence for my business.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I am kinda for it, but kinda against it because I like this 35% off coupon for weed in the bay area I get in the local ad magazine. I save so much fucking money with that coupon I love it

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[-] turnip@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'd support a ban on advertising in public spaces, but in digital spaces its a bit nonsense given it funds a lot of things people then dont need to pay for.

[-] atro_city@fedia.io 1 points 2 months ago

The best way to make advertising uninteresting or useless is to provide an alternative form of making money. If the default way to monetise a website, video, or whatever is ads, then ads will continue to be used. If we actually had an alternative that was as or more lucrative, that's what would be used.

"Ban it" also means you need a way to enforce it, and even if it were banned in one country, that's just one country. They might finally come up with an alternative, but why wait for a ban? Why not discuss and test alternatives here instead of just dreaming that a solution magically shows up?

[-] huppakee@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Another part of the problem I haven't read in the comments is all the companies that rely on advertising to exist, especially media companies. Many newspapers, magazines, websites, TV channels etc would go bankrupt if they couldn't earn money with advertising. There is a simple solution because we can 'just pay them' but I'm afraid we won't. People hate advertising (someone commented "advertising is violence", that really says it all), but still many of us choose to not get the subscription but use the 'free' option instead.

I'm not against banning all advertising, but I think working towards more peaceful advertising might be fruitful. Banning advertising of tabacco products and having disclaimers when financial and medical products show this can be done.

[-] Tungsten5@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Let those companies fail. A nee similar company will emerge from the ashes with a better business model that doesn’t rely on force fucking ads down your throat.

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 months ago

If the product can't exist without advertisement does it deserve to?

[-] huppakee@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

If a product wouldn't sell if it isn't heavily marketed I'd agree it doesn't need to exist. But if a product is paid for by advertising other products, that is a different story. Newspapers have had advertising for ages because of the high cost of running a newspaper, many tv-channels wouldn't be able to exist on a subscription basis. Same goes for a lot of websites online. Also no more free porn (not legally at least). Advertising pays for a lot of things in our society. I'm not saying this is a good thing, but this system cannot be changed overnight.

[-] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

I think anything that can't exist without money from advertising either shouldn't exist, or should be subsidized by taxes, not ads.

[-] lovely_reader@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Tricky territory when you're talking about journalism.

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[-] Goun@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 months ago

Yes yes yes, this!

I always joke w my gf, that when I'm president, I'll ban marketing. It's ugly, wasteful, useless (from the consumer's pov,) annoying, etc. I can't believe it's not hyper-regulated and taxed into oblivion.

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[-] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago

It would make promoting new art and events downright difficult.

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[-] daepicgamerbro69@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

then you would have illegal advertising edit: people giving down votes as if i am wrong. lmaoing @ u all

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[-] opsecisbasedonwhat@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 months ago

It's necessary for monopoly capitalism to induce demand. It's part of the planned economy.

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this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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