What if we banned all advertising? Not regulate it—abolish it. This proposal would transform manipulation machines, and maybe save democracy itself. A thought experiment worth considering.

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.

  • rekabis@lemmy.ca
    14·
    9 hours ago

    #YES, PLEASE.

    I have been fighting advertising in my own way since the early 2000s:

    • I abandoned broadcast radio in the mid-1990s. I can’t recall the last time I turned on a car radio.
    • I abandoned broadcast TV in 2001
    • I jumped on board with Adblock the moment it was released for Phoenix (now Firefox) back in 2004
    • The lone streaming service I actually subscribe to is the cheapest non-advertising tier available
    • Torrenting covers many of the remaining gaps
    • Even my Internet Radio stations are chosen primarily through lack of advertising.

    It’s gotten to the point where stumbling across an ad is the mental equivalent to nails on a chalkboard.