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I see your tongue in your cheek; nonetheless, I have struggled with the very idea you entertain. Marking that a product comes from a particular place allows the

I see your tongue in your cheek; nonetheless, I have struggled with the very idea you entertain. Marking that a product comes from a particular place allows the non knowledgeable person to find more of that thing. A separate-but-related idea is that of advertising, i.e. putting the idea of a product out there separately from the good itself. Nobody thinks they like it, but I know that some of the more meaningful experiences in my life (finding local improv, for instance) have come as a result of effective advertisement. I suppose the problem is not that advertisement or branding exists at all --- but how it exists today. I don't know if this is the "resting state" of advertisement/branding or not.

munk-a 8y ago
Advertising, at it's best, informs consumers of choice - if this were the type of advertising we saw in the modern world that's fine - posting a DIY tool shed build and including links to specific tools that might be useful is helpful, and I think that's why we've seen sponsored content come into prominence, briefly be useful, and then get swarmed by BS. We need to find some way, societally, to limit how much of this wave'o'advertising we're exposed to - to place a value on time and remove the "cold call" style of advertising pitches. I was optimistic about ad-words when it first rolled out because, given the context awareness and unobtrusiveness, I thought it might kill advertising dead - and it sort of did. We no longer have the "Shoot the pirate" flash banner ads, nor the popups for v1agr4 since that over the top attention grab ended up being pushed out by more relevant product advertising... but we're backsliding again. If you're an advertiser and I raise my hand and say "I'm looking for a power drill" or even "I'm looking for something to do on saturday" then feel free to make your case - but this unsolicited BS is like the bane that once was door-to-door salesmen, it's actually a hilariously parallel - your time is being taken, something is invading your private space and you're being interrupted from doing something you'd like to do to listen to someone shill.

munk-a 8y ago

Advertising, at it's best, informs consumers of choice - if this were the type of advertising we saw in the modern world that's fine - posting a DIY tool shed build and including links to specific tools that might be useful is helpful, and I think that's why we've seen sponsored content come into prominence, briefly be useful, and then get swarmed by BS. We need to find some way, societally, to limit how much of this wave'o'advertising we're exposed to - to place a value on time and remove the "cold call" style of advertising pitches. I was optimistic about ad-words when it first rolled out because, given the context awareness and unobtrusiveness, I thought it might kill advertising dead - and it sort of did. We no longer have the "Shoot the pirate" flash banner ads, nor the popups for v1agr4 since that over the top attention grab ended up being pushed out by more relevant product advertising... but we're backsliding again. If you're an advertiser and I raise my hand and say "I'm looking for a power drill" or even "I'm looking for something to do on saturday" then feel free to make your case - but this unsolicited BS is like the bane that once was door-to-door salesmen, it's actually a hilariously parallel - your time is being taken, something is invading your private space and you're being interrupted from doing something you'd like to do to listen to someone shill.