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Actually, yes, all ads are irrelevant to me. I have never purchased an item from an ad, and cut out ads form my life as much as possible. I run multiple layers

by easong 11y ago

Actually, yes, all ads are irrelevant to me. I have never purchased an item from an ad, and cut out ads form my life as much as possible. I run multiple layers of software to block advertising on all my devices, refuse to use services/apps that force one to use ads, and will leave a restaurant/airport lounge/other public area if they play content with advertising. I won't read print magazines because they have advertisements. There is nothing an advertiser could do to convince me to listen to, read, or watch their ad. The hidden/in context ads are somewhat unavoidable (eg ads for YC on HN), but I write code to filter out such things when I see patterns. I'm working on releasing an extension that subs out all brand names on the web. And yet, somehow, I still manage to live a modern life of plenty. If I need something, I'll look for it. In fact, I find that this leads me to higher quality and more innovative products that better fit my needs - if a service spreads through advertising, that's very good evidence that it's both shitty and not targeted at me. If your memory is polluted by advertising, you'll tend to reach for inferior products first. Advertising has negative value for the individual and the ecosystem, because companies compete on marketing and not on product.

billmalarky 11y ago
>And yet, somehow, I still manage to live a modern life of plenty. This lifestyle works for you precisely because the vast majority of the rest of the market does not live this way. Capitalist economies (where the consumers are individuals rather than one large buyer like the state) require products and services to get public awareness. The best way to achieve public awareness is through paid for mass communication.
- easong 11y ago
  It's the easiest (not the best, IMO) way for companies to reach out to a broad market right now, because consumers as a whole haven't yet figured out that advertising is a negative quality signal and are currently terrible at controlling their information diet. But there are growing segments of the population that are getting better at reading healthy just the same as there's a growing segment concerned about eating healthy. As more information-savvy and time-sensitive (read: higher-income) consumers reject advertising, companies seeking to target them will have to find alternate methods of reaching out to them. If information distribution continues to be disintermediated, then they might find that the only way to do that is by focusing on building things people legitimately want to use and tell their peers about. Traditional advertising will become even more a ghetto than it already is, and will primarily target low-value consumers.
- Sir_Substance 11y ago
  >The best way to achieve public awareness is through paid for mass communication. Justify that this is of value to the people.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Public awareness != spamming people with ads till their eyes bleed or manipulating people into buying things they don't need. I'm pretty sure one could actually reduce your assertion to "capitalist economies require classes of products and services to get public awareness". I don't need to be constantly made aware of a particular brand of juice or a particular barber shop. It's enough I learn that there are things like "juices" and "barber shops". I'll find some when I need them.

by easong 11y ago

billmalarky 11y ago

>And yet, somehow, I still manage to live a modern life of plenty. This lifestyle works for you precisely because the vast majority of the rest of the market does not live this way. Capitalist economies (where the consumers are individuals rather than one large buyer like the state) require products and services to get public awareness. The best way to achieve public awareness is through paid for mass communication.

easong 11y ago
It's the easiest (not the best, IMO) way for companies to reach out to a broad market right now, because consumers as a whole haven't yet figured out that advertising is a negative quality signal and are currently terrible at controlling their information diet. But there are growing segments of the population that are getting better at reading healthy just the same as there's a growing segment concerned about eating healthy. As more information-savvy and time-sensitive (read: higher-income) consumers reject advertising, companies seeking to target them will have to find alternate methods of reaching out to them. If information distribution continues to be disintermediated, then they might find that the only way to do that is by focusing on building things people legitimately want to use and tell their peers about. Traditional advertising will become even more a ghetto than it already is, and will primarily target low-value consumers.
Sir_Substance 11y ago
>The best way to achieve public awareness is through paid for mass communication. Justify that this is of value to the people.
TeMPOraL 11y ago
Public awareness != spamming people with ads till their eyes bleed or manipulating people into buying things they don't need. I'm pretty sure one could actually reduce your assertion to "capitalist economies require classes of products and services to get public awareness". I don't need to be constantly made aware of a particular brand of juice or a particular barber shop. It's enough I learn that there are things like "juices" and "barber shops". I'll find some when I need them.