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I really detest the general "hate" of advertising. Don't get me wrong: I'm a zealous ad blocker, largely because advertising can (and does) go over the line of

by cletus 7y ago

I really detest the general "hate" of advertising. Don't get me wrong: I'm a zealous ad blocker, largely because advertising can (and does) go over the line of being intrusive. Also I think the dirty secret of ad tech is ad personalization has pretty limited value. But advertising in general is how people find out about things they might need or want. There might be a bakery 2 miles away you'll really enjoy. How will you find out about it if they don't advertise? Being strictly reliant on word-of-mouth is woefully naive (IMHO). Take Google search, the user is literally looking for something. Why isn't an ad an appropriate response to someone searching for a search for "ozark jetski for hire"? As long as ads and organic search results are clearly differentiated, IMHO this is totally fine. Certain behaviours obviously need to be restricted, like I'm a big fan of outright outlawing advertising to children. But advertising in general? In what world is that reasonable?

RivieraKid 7y ago
There must be a better way to solve the problem of helping people make better market decisions. For example a public service that notifies you about new high quality products or services, tailored for your location and interests.
neop1x 7y ago
How would you know? I could see it in a map or recommendation sites. Even user-contributed projects like OpenStreetMap could do. This is how I discovered couple of places. There doesn't have to be advertising to discover something. On the other hand, advertising may work better for less smart people who don't even know how to use internet properly and live within Facebook for example. :( Unless something pops over their screen they won't notice it.
luckylion 7y ago
> But advertising in general is how people find out about things they might need or want. That's in the article. He's arguing the exact point that advertising has a legitimate function in a market to inform about products. They've outgrown that, he continues, and now they do not inform, they convince (and often lie to do so).

by cletus 7y ago

RivieraKid 7y ago

There must be a better way to solve the problem of helping people make better market decisions. For example a public service that notifies you about new high quality products or services, tailored for your location and interests.

neop1x 7y ago

How would you know? I could see it in a map or recommendation sites. Even user-contributed projects like OpenStreetMap could do. This is how I discovered couple of places. There doesn't have to be advertising to discover something. On the other hand, advertising may work better for less smart people who don't even know how to use internet properly and live within Facebook for example. :( Unless something pops over their screen they won't notice it.

luckylion 7y ago

> But advertising in general is how people find out about things they might need or want. That's in the article. He's arguing the exact point that advertising has a legitimate function in a market to inform about products. They've outgrown that, he continues, and now they do not inform, they convince (and often lie to do so).