I want to get as far away from the ad economy and ad culture as possible. Since there’s a 0% chance the morons supporting it will ever learn from their mistakes, I’m starting to realize the only option going forward is to create new places where we aren’t stuck with the “tunnel vision of the stupids.”
It doesn’t have to be large, start small and work our way out. It also doesn’t have to be expensive. It shouldn’t be too difficult to enforce a ban on physical advertisements within the borders, but digital advertising is a whole 'nother ballgame.
Even for a small town, would it be possible to sue companies for running ads in it? Similar to how the same company will show different content on their web services depending on where the user connects from to adhere to local laws. It would be fine if they just blocked connections from where advertising is illegal, but it’s not okay for them to show ads to our residents.
Any insight into this besides useful idiots saying advertising is good or necessary would be greatly appreciated!
I see the following issue:
What is an ad? Is it an ad spot in the middle of a TV show? A big billboard? A banner on a website? Someone talking about a brand? Just writing or saying a brand name? Subtle algorithmic nudging?
You gotta put a line in the sand, and depending on where you put it, it’ll be harder to influence anyone or harder to address brands or products. There’s always a trade off.
And then additionally we gotta address any behavioural adaptions of big companies. Imagine if companies started striking illegal deals with social media companies for favourable algorithms? How do you control that? And on the other hand, imagine you were talking about a product and suddenly people accuse you of illegal advertising? How do you make sure people don’t skirt the line and also no one is wrongly convicted?
I’m not saying this is a dumb idea, I actually agree cracking down on forceful or manipulative advertising is an interesting idea, I just think that these broad stroke ideas an insane amount of continuous planning, validation and readdressing.
A simple line is if the ad was paid for. So sign twirlers… paid for. Person walking down the street in a brand shirt they paid for is not an ad. Talking about a product… did you get paid, ad. And of course free or discounted services and such equals getting paid. No more free X if you review a place on yelp. And don’t worry about a new garbage service. People will talk even without getti g paid. And I think a carve out for an ad service that people can choose to view as needed. I don’t have ads in my tv viewing. So I intentionally surf trailers once in a while. Much better experience.
Great points, and it’s important we address this from a realistic perspective.
I don’t have all the answers, but I would start with the low-hanging fruit to avoid penalizing innocent people. Pretty much everything we can all agree on is an ad would be prohibited, you could think of it as “systemic advertising.” (ads in the middle of videos, billboards, banners). Would somebody wearing a branded shirt be considered advertising? Probably not. Would somebody standing on the side of the road twirling a sign for a business be advertising? Absolutely.
I don’t think there’s a “perfect” solution and some viral marketing is bound to get through. As with any crime, stopping it would depend on the resources available to the community.
I would consider a place where systemic advertising is illegal and penalties are enforced to be a success.
I think rather than address all advertising, it would be best and easiest to create a more specific “obnoxious advertising” category and put things in it as needed. Honestly I don’t really care if someone twirls a sign, but if that becomes the go to and there are twirlers on every block then I’d get sick of them really fast.
But you also have to allow for things folks might genuinely want to know. If a local restaurant has a grand opening and you don’t let them tell people, they at might have trouble getting foot traffic after they open. If I start up a competitor to a trash service, ads are likely the only way people are going to know my service is 15% cheaper.
I don’t like advertising, but I do acknowledge a certain amount is probably necessary.
the post office has the cheapest targeted door-to-door advos you can get (which big corps/politicians abuse to absolutely spam the shit…which means people throw the shit away immediately. ironically the post office should charge more, or have some kind of local discount thing idk…)
This is how you do it. You create clear and direct laws that specify what isn’t okay. New Hampshire banned all billboards. I believe Vietnam recently banned all ads longer than 15 seconds online. These make it absolutely clear what is and isn’t okay, and leave no wiggle room for companies to try to circumvent the laws on technicalities.
And that’s part of the issue; this assumes that we’ve somehow come to a consensus on what ‘ads’ are, or which are ‘bad’. I can get behind getting rid of obtrusive ads, such as pop-ups and video interruptions, but I also actually like billboard advertisements (As long as they are in locations that respect what’s around them, are legible from a distance (not wordy, I’m trying to drive!), and don’t have eye-searing lights). When I travel, billboards often bring us to some interesting locations we may not have thought of before.
Personally, I’d look at making policies restricting “obtrusive advertising”. I don’t mind the advertising, I mind the delivery.