It’s funny how we seem to be going meta on ads, and I think it could be good to refocus attention on things that produce better value. Ads are powerful, but I

It’s funny how we seem to be going meta on ads, and I think it could be good to refocus attention on things that produce better value. Ads are powerful, but I think they maximize on value to the seller at the expense of the buyer. Many of the big problems we’ve had have a lot of responsibility on ads, I think: cigarettes, opioids, political action committees, mass consumerism in general, sugar/diabetes, pharmaceutical prices, etc etc. I think many of these crises are made possible or at least worse through ads that change people’s perception to move them toward more negative behavior. I think this is like the urban legend of hypnosis in that you can’t make people do what they don’t want to, but you can shift just a few percent and that still makes tons of money. Drinking cokes every day, eating fast food every day, “talking to your doctor about Foo drug,” the list goes on and on. People like doing this stuff so making them do more by showing ads is just a function of ad spend.