this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
1406 points (98.1% liked)

Mildly Interesting

19727 readers
857 users here now

This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.

This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?

Just post some stuff and don't spam.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
marcar@lemmy.world
WhatsHerBucket@lemmy.world
Jimbabwe@lemmy.ml
1406
What If We Made Advertising Illegal? (simone.org)
submitted 2 days ago by sundrei to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
395 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Goun@lemmy.ml 83 points 2 days ago (2 children)

"what if you don't know about the effects of a drug that could save your life?"

lol what? No way anyone says that with a straight face

[–] heavydust@sh.itjust.works 87 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

5 minutes ago on Hacker News, among a lot of stupid stuff like "your life is empty without having ads all around you."

Reference for fun: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43596333

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 43 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I love that in Cyberpunk 2077 they're is often a channel on called "just ads". Of course in pure cyberpunk style those ads can be horrific.

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

There are shopping channels in many countries (or at least paid cable television) which are literally just ads. In classic cyberpunk style, it's a reflection of the dystopian present.

[–] Kanda@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago

That's not an ad, it's the "Scamming old people by phone" show.

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

They’re on HN acting like Googling and getting WebMD is uüuber rare