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> As a reductio ad absurdum, picture a world with all advertisement banned. If you were an inventor or innovator who came up with a superior product or streaml

> As a reductio ad absurdum, picture a world with all advertisement banned. If you were an inventor or innovator who came up with a superior product or streamlined some process and inclined to start your own business to compete on cost or quality, your options are a lot more limited if you can't buy ads. Yeah, I don't understand what people who peddle this quote expect individuals/companies to do to get their product noticed if ads are unethical apparently. You're just meant to rely on word of mouth starting from nothing? I don't see what's wrong with telling people about your product to see if they're interested. Ads in specific newspapers, posters in a street, handing out leaflets in a certain area, ads during a specific TV show etc. are all forms of targeted marketing as well.

blub 9y ago
I think you must have missed the last ~15 years and where the advertising industry has turned more and more to spying on the customers of their real customers for profit. The misconduct of the players in the ad business is legendary. If I were you, I would try to educate myself before continuing to write here.
- seanwilson 9y ago
  Obviously I'm against spying on people. You can show people ads in ways that isn't invading their privacy.
  - majewsky 9y ago
    It's not just privacy. It's also attention that's invaded. Among the many buzzwords of recent years is the "attention economy". It has already existed for quite a long time (newspapers selling ad space are actually selling their readers' eyeballs), but since a few years ago, ad companies have the technology to optimize for maximum attention. The effects of attention economy can be witnessed in reports of people quitting Facebook temporarily as a kind of detox, or the general uncluttering movement (caused by sensory overload which is in turn caused by attention parasites like social networks, and our generally hectic lifestyle). In my opinion, the costs of the attention economy outweigh its benefits.
    - seanwilson 9y ago
      > The effects of attention economy can be witnessed in reports of people quitting Facebook temporarily as a kind of detox, or the general uncluttering movement (caused by sensory overload which is in turn caused by attention parasites like social networks, and our generally hectic lifestyle). In my opinion, the costs of the attention economy outweigh its benefits. I don't think the solution here is to somehow stop people making products like Facebook though...if you're using Facebook to an unhealthy degree and letting it consume all your attention you should work on yourself in my opinion as you'll just find something else to fill that gap. Facebook has had a positive impact on my social life for example and I don't feel addicted to it.
  - kahnpro 9y ago
    You can, but there's a difference between how we hope things will turn out, and how people are actually behaving in the real world.
  - beagle3 9y ago
    You can, but it's more effective to show them in ways that do invade their privacy, so in the race to the profit (which is as unavoidable as races to the bottom), that's what every eyeball agency, lead by Google and Facebook, does. Unless this is curbed by regulation, which I think is extremely unlikely for the next 10 years at least, you can safely assume, and should assume, that all ads are privacy invading.

blub 9y ago

I think you must have missed the last ~15 years and where the advertising industry has turned more and more to spying on the customers of their real customers for profit. The misconduct of the players in the ad business is legendary. If I were you, I would try to educate myself before continuing to write here.

seanwilson 9y ago
Obviously I'm against spying on people. You can show people ads in ways that isn't invading their privacy.
- majewsky 9y ago
  It's not just privacy. It's also attention that's invaded. Among the many buzzwords of recent years is the "attention economy". It has already existed for quite a long time (newspapers selling ad space are actually selling their readers' eyeballs), but since a few years ago, ad companies have the technology to optimize for maximum attention. The effects of attention economy can be witnessed in reports of people quitting Facebook temporarily as a kind of detox, or the general uncluttering movement (caused by sensory overload which is in turn caused by attention parasites like social networks, and our generally hectic lifestyle). In my opinion, the costs of the attention economy outweigh its benefits.
  - seanwilson 9y ago
    > The effects of attention economy can be witnessed in reports of people quitting Facebook temporarily as a kind of detox, or the general uncluttering movement (caused by sensory overload which is in turn caused by attention parasites like social networks, and our generally hectic lifestyle). In my opinion, the costs of the attention economy outweigh its benefits. I don't think the solution here is to somehow stop people making products like Facebook though...if you're using Facebook to an unhealthy degree and letting it consume all your attention you should work on yourself in my opinion as you'll just find something else to fill that gap. Facebook has had a positive impact on my social life for example and I don't feel addicted to it.
- kahnpro 9y ago
  You can, but there's a difference between how we hope things will turn out, and how people are actually behaving in the real world.
- beagle3 9y ago
  You can, but it's more effective to show them in ways that do invade their privacy, so in the race to the profit (which is as unavoidable as races to the bottom), that's what every eyeball agency, lead by Google and Facebook, does. Unless this is curbed by regulation, which I think is extremely unlikely for the next 10 years at least, you can safely assume, and should assume, that all ads are privacy invading.