3 ms·

Not my comment, but possibly they were thinking around the idea of modern advertising causing overall less rational economic decisions to be made by polluting t

by caf 8y ago

Not my comment, but possibly they were thinking around the idea of modern advertising causing overall less rational economic decisions to be made by polluting the market with more objectively false information than true (resulting in products and services being purchased where the utility gained for the price is not maximised). As a hypothetical example, if a particularly effective marketing campaign resulted in the market preferring a particular poor quality lightbulb over an equally priced but better quality alternative, there would be an economy-wide misallocation of resources into building poor quality lightbulbs.

munk-a 8y ago
Actually I was more referring to the effect that constant advertising has on our attention span and possibly even our society at large. We know we are constantly being fed B.S. so reading something with an open mind is difficult in the modern world, chances are there's some sort of sponsored content push in there somewhere - so we skim read before reading to check for ads, then we stop doing that second step and just take a surface scan of data. Our brains are so constantly bombarded with advertising that we're now receiving advertising, occasionally, for retreats where we can get away from all the advertising and noise of the modern world. I have a personal, lovely example for this which is so beautifully clear - sandwich boards. Sandwich boards are those tilted sidewalk signs that shops put out for anyone who isn't aware, they can cause a moderate increase in traffic to a store because they're annoying - specifically. Signs that are hung from an awning above a shop don't obstruct people so their attention doesn't catch them as often, while as sandwich boards are more than happy to block half the sidewalk and force you to walk around them in an effort to be noticed - their usage is valid when indicating a temporary state, since the cost of hanging an awning sign to let people know that the ping-pong tournament has been moved down the street is silly and often not an option - but when that board is just advertising an establishment (even if doing that advertising by letting you know about a sale) then they can often be seen below an awning sign that is perfectly visible from the same angle (window painting and displays tend to be less visible to pedestrians so there is a valid reason to have some angled description of your business) So, let's do away with all these sandwich boards - they exist for no reason other than to annoy us and get in our way. They occasionally make narrow sidewalks difficult to traverse for people with walkers or wheelchairs and what, as a society, are we getting for that cost? Nothing. Sandwich boards are a beautiful example of this since so many of us encounter them daily, but lots of other advertising goes out of it's way to be obtrusive, to steal some of your mind's attention (jingles) or to be visually distracting (flashy banner ads). This shit has costs that we all pay, and the value we, as a society, reap for paying that cost is dwarfed by the cost - people are already spending almost all their money constantly so this advertising war isn't to make sure people make informed choices, it's to steal the sale away from a different product.

by caf 8y ago

munk-a 8y ago

Actually I was more referring to the effect that constant advertising has on our attention span and possibly even our society at large. We know we are constantly being fed B.S. so reading something with an open mind is difficult in the modern world, chances are there's some sort of sponsored content push in there somewhere - so we skim read before reading to check for ads, then we stop doing that second step and just take a surface scan of data. Our brains are so constantly bombarded with advertising that we're now receiving advertising, occasionally, for retreats where we can get away from all the advertising and noise of the modern world. I have a personal, lovely example for this which is so beautifully clear - sandwich boards. Sandwich boards are those tilted sidewalk signs that shops put out for anyone who isn't aware, they can cause a moderate increase in traffic to a store because they're annoying - specifically. Signs that are hung from an awning above a shop don't obstruct people so their attention doesn't catch them as often, while as sandwich boards are more than happy to block half the sidewalk and force you to walk around them in an effort to be noticed - their usage is valid when indicating a temporary state, since the cost of hanging an awning sign to let people know that the ping-pong tournament has been moved down the street is silly and often not an option - but when that board is just advertising an establishment (even if doing that advertising by letting you know about a sale) then they can often be seen below an awning sign that is perfectly visible from the same angle (window painting and displays tend to be less visible to pedestrians so there is a valid reason to have some angled description of your business) So, let's do away with all these sandwich boards - they exist for no reason other than to annoy us and get in our way. They occasionally make narrow sidewalks difficult to traverse for people with walkers or wheelchairs and what, as a society, are we getting for that cost? Nothing. Sandwich boards are a beautiful example of this since so many of us encounter them daily, but lots of other advertising goes out of it's way to be obtrusive, to steal some of your mind's attention (jingles) or to be visually distracting (flashy banner ads). This shit has costs that we all pay, and the value we, as a society, reap for paying that cost is dwarfed by the cost - people are already spending almost all their money constantly so this advertising war isn't to make sure people make informed choices, it's to steal the sale away from a different product.