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“Advertisement is the rich asking for more money. They disfigure their towns in order to decorate their houses.” — G.K. Chesterton The correct amount of adver
by endgame 4y ago
“Advertisement is the rich asking for more money. They disfigure their towns in order to decorate their houses.”
— G.K. Chesterton
The correct amount of advertising in a society is not zero - we all like finding out about things which will actually help us - but it is not unbounded either. The advertising machine acts according to its incentives, and will not rest until every spare surface, every quiet moment, every gap between thoughts is up for auction. It must therefore be restrained so that other uses of space can flourish.
- moolcool 4y agoPleased and surprised to see a Chesterton quote here!
- CobrastanJorji 4y agoI was thinking about flagging it, but I don't know why they posted it, so I won't.
- colordrops 4y agoWhy would you flag it?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- swid 4y agohttps://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Chesterton%27s_Fence https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Chesterton%27s_Fence Edit to say - he was making a joke, this will help you understand
- colordrops 4y agoI don't see how that makes it flag-worthy.
- tomrod 4y agoIt's a very nuanced form of humor.
- colordrops 4y agoUgh, not used to humor on HN haha.
- soulofmischief 4y agoHumor isn't disavowed on HN. We're allowed to crack a joke here and there. :)
- girvo 4y agoNot to be too meta, but it's slightly more common these days than it was a decade ago I think. Likely impossible to avoid with the sheer growth of the place. That said, that kind of very smart humour has always been around here
- swid 4y agoWhoever downvoted you didn’t get the joke.
- samizdis 4y agoSo you're sitting on the fence ...
- anotherevan 4y agoI see what you did there. https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/ https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/
- fsckboy 4y agoI stole the quote and tried to pass if off as my own work to a pawn broker I know, but he said he'd already been offered the same quote by another author and since he wasn't sure of the origin of the quote he suggested I put it back till its provenance could be established: wouldn't you know, with my luck I had chosen Chesterton's fence.
- GekkePrutser 4y agoIn my opinion it definitely is zero. Word of mouth is more than enough to learn of good new things.
- tomrod 4y agoThat is a form of advertising.
- GekkePrutser 4y agoI guess but not initiated by sales and marketing people trying to flog stuff I don't need, but actual satisfied customers who I can trust because they're my friends.
- tomrod 4y agoI'm against most advertising as well, but affiliate advertising is a very known thing. Consider MLMs as a model (a disgusting one at that) but friend-marketing is a thing. Advertising that informs can be a net positive. Advertising that does anything else is a large waste of resources, IMHO.
- em-bee 4y agothat's a good point. i don't like advertising either. but friends trying to sell me stuff so they can make a living somehow feels worse. or imagine advertisements be replaced with door-to-door salespeople. i think a good way would be more markets. imagine "market-day" on a tech conference. everyone at a conference who is selling services in a room sitting at a table, and you can walk up to them if we are looking for some service.
- endgame 4y agoIf you ban all other forms of advertising, you will get fake "friends" trying to sell you stuff. I suppose "influencers" and MLMs are existing versions of this, but they are rightly seen as tacky and parasocial. Do you really want to force all advertising down that route?
- CuriouslyC 4y agoI don't think advertising is the right way to raise awareness about products and services - it is biased, untrustworthy and obtrusive. (Non-shill) reviews, word of mouth and other grassroots methods are both more effective and less obtrusive, the problem is if you've got a half baked product and you're burning money you need to ram your junk down people's throats RIGHT NOW or you'll go out of business, and thus advertising.
- threatofrain 4y agoWhat's the consequence if advertising is 0? An inefficient market? What's wrong with word of mouth?
- 31337Logic 4y ago> “Advertisement is the rich asking for more money. They disfigure their towns in order to decorate their houses.” > — G.K. Chesterton > The correct amount of advertising in a society is not zero - we all like finding out about things which will actually help us - but it is not unbounded either. The advertising machine acts according to its incentives, and will not rest until every spare surface, every quiet moment, every gap between thoughts is up for auction. It must therefore be restrained so that other uses of space can flourish. Wow. That was perhaps the most eloquent thing I've ever read on the hacker news. Thanks for posting it!
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- galfarragem 4y ago"Advertisement is the lubricant of Capitalism" -- Me.
- hansvm 4y ago> we all like finding out about things which will actually help us That's pretty easy to achieve with a pull model rather than push though, especially with modern technical advances Chesterton couldn't have dreamed of (search and ubiquitous internet). Under the backdrop of restraining advertising except insofar as it offers a legitimate discovery service, given how easy it is to operate such a service, is it still reasonable to populate websites, billboards, and magazines with intrusions into unrelated aspects of life?