5 ms·

Here's my secret: Don't buy ANYTHING advertised to you.

BubRoss 8y ago
What about all the stuff submarine advertised on hacker news?
the_pwner224 8y ago
Advertising has real value in making markets efficient. If Bob's Bait Shop has a 50% off sale, or if a new shop opens in a town, a lot of people would really want to know, and advertising fills this gap. The businesses get more profit, and the customers are able to make more informed decisions. Here's a practical example of an inefficiency that advertising could have solved: I was taught Java in 7th grade, and used Eclipse as the IDE from then to 12th grade. In 12th grade, a friend used IntelliJ and I asked him about it and tried it out. Turns out it was much better than Eclipse, and I stuck with it. Jeff Atwood's blog https://blog.codinghorror.com https://blog.codinghorror.com has a little unobtrusive and non-evil ad in the corner. In the past it advertised for Rider (the JetBrains .NET IDE), but he seems to have added other products since then. If there was an IntelliJ ad there, I would have looked into it and it would have been a win-win situation: JetBrains gets a customer and eventually $$$, I get a better IDE. One idea I had is to limit advertising to (for example) 3 ads a day per person. Obviously this would have to be enforced by the government/etc. by removing all non-sanctioned ad delivery channels as well as all public ads, but it would allow relevant and useful ads to be useful while reducing the garbage of companies putting their name everywhere in a mind-control attempt.
- pnw_hazor 8y ago
  An ad for Bob's Bait shop that is based on making me feel free and easy, or so on, is evil. Modern ads usually do their best to associate feelings with products or brands. They rarely have any basis in reality. They mostly try to use neuroscience to trick you into wanting products or loving brands you would otherwise ignore.
- quantum_magpie 8y ago
  >Advertising has real value in making markets efficient. If Bob's Bait Shop has a 50% off sale, or if a new shop opens in a town, a lot of people would really want to know, and advertising fills this gap. The businesses get more profit, and the customers are able to make more informed decisions. My argument is that customers do not get to make informed decisions when they are shown ads. Customers are manipulated to make the decisions that are profitable for Bob's Bait Shop. The only way for the ad to benefit the customer, is when the customer intentionally seeks out the ad. Classifieds in a newspaper exist as such solution. Important part is identical formatting, without any ads standing out visually, sorted by category. Any other form of ads IMO is unethical and immoral.
- claudiawerner 8y ago
  Is the "real value" in making markets efficient something we should strive for? It's clear that not all efficiencies are good for humanity; doubtlessly the working day could be longer and this would be more "efficient" than having that time to rest, and slaves are more efficient (considering labour input as money is much closer to zero for them, and labour output is higher).
- Doxin 8y ago
  Good marketing has value. If I walk into a store I don't mind a knowledgeable sales clerk selling me something I was looking to buy anyways. I do mind the pushy tactics and bald-faced lies they serve you in practice though.
  - yeahitslikethat 8y ago
    Have you heard of SPIFFs? If you had you'd mind it.
- gowld 8y ago
  The term "advertising" is ambiguous. Advertising existence, price, content, attributes of the product, is great. But advertising unrelated things (sex, cowboy hats, space ships) and then saying "buy this other thing to associate with that" is a fraud and a product to avoid.

What about all the stuff submarine advertised on hacker news?

Advertising has real value in making markets efficient. If Bob's Bait Shop has a 50% off sale, or if a new shop opens in a town, a lot of people would really want to know, and advertising fills this gap. The businesses get more profit, and the customers are able to make more informed decisions. Here's a practical example of an inefficiency that advertising could have solved: I was taught Java in 7th grade, and used Eclipse as the IDE from then to 12th grade. In 12th grade, a friend used IntelliJ and I asked him about it and tried it out. Turns out it was much better than Eclipse, and I stuck with it. Jeff Atwood's blog https://blog.codinghorror.com https://blog.codinghorror.com has a little unobtrusive and non-evil ad in the corner. In the past it advertised for Rider (the JetBrains .NET IDE), but he seems to have added other products since then. If there was an IntelliJ ad there, I would have looked into it and it would have been a win-win situation: JetBrains gets a customer and eventually $$$, I get a better IDE. One idea I had is to limit advertising to (for example) 3 ads a day per person. Obviously this would have to be enforced by the government/etc. by removing all non-sanctioned ad delivery channels as well as all public ads, but it would allow relevant and useful ads to be useful while reducing the garbage of companies putting their name everywhere in a mind-control attempt.

pnw_hazor 8y ago
An ad for Bob's Bait shop that is based on making me feel free and easy, or so on, is evil. Modern ads usually do their best to associate feelings with products or brands. They rarely have any basis in reality. They mostly try to use neuroscience to trick you into wanting products or loving brands you would otherwise ignore.
quantum_magpie 8y ago
>Advertising has real value in making markets efficient. If Bob's Bait Shop has a 50% off sale, or if a new shop opens in a town, a lot of people would really want to know, and advertising fills this gap. The businesses get more profit, and the customers are able to make more informed decisions. My argument is that customers do not get to make informed decisions when they are shown ads. Customers are manipulated to make the decisions that are profitable for Bob's Bait Shop. The only way for the ad to benefit the customer, is when the customer intentionally seeks out the ad. Classifieds in a newspaper exist as such solution. Important part is identical formatting, without any ads standing out visually, sorted by category. Any other form of ads IMO is unethical and immoral.
claudiawerner 8y ago
Is the "real value" in making markets efficient something we should strive for? It's clear that not all efficiencies are good for humanity; doubtlessly the working day could be longer and this would be more "efficient" than having that time to rest, and slaves are more efficient (considering labour input as money is much closer to zero for them, and labour output is higher).
Doxin 8y ago
Good marketing has value. If I walk into a store I don't mind a knowledgeable sales clerk selling me something I was looking to buy anyways. I do mind the pushy tactics and bald-faced lies they serve you in practice though.
- yeahitslikethat 8y ago
  Have you heard of SPIFFs? If you had you'd mind it.
gowld 8y ago
The term "advertising" is ambiguous. Advertising existence, price, content, attributes of the product, is great. But advertising unrelated things (sex, cowboy hats, space ships) and then saying "buy this other thing to associate with that" is a fraud and a product to avoid.