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>...a two ton pile of ad fliers Alamy is selling scans of ad prints from the 1850s. https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/1850s-advert.html https://www.alamy.com/

>...a two ton pile of ad fliers Alamy is selling scans of ad prints from the 1850s. https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/1850s-advert.html https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/1850s-advert.html

chgs 2y ago
Because they are rare
- chefandy 2y ago
  I don’t think that’s true? Tons of stuff from that era had been digitized, even before newer more relevant stuff and older rarer stuff, because the acid paper had a short shelf life and there were so many ads in printed stuff then. I might have a skewed perspective from working in the digitization world for quite some time. I think they’re selling what they sell with all their other content— discovery, curation, preparation, and easy delivery.
chefandy 2y ago
Ads range from a (necessary, in a capitalist society) nuisance to a scourge, and people justly put up increasingly thick boundaries to shield themselves from their influence. When waning cultural relevance or whatever dilutes that influence, you can more easily see the ads for what they are— often manipulative marketing tactics implemented through often genuinely beautiful art and design. Both aspects are fascinating to consider and the art can be quite enjoyable. Early modernist posters from Paris are beautiful. Watching collections of mid century television ads in the prelinger archives is fun, and tells us a lot about the ways we are influenced by modern ads speaking to current perspectives, fashions, and concerns.
- ANewFormation 2y ago
  Capitalism would work 100% fine without ads because people naturally compare and contrast options when buying stuff. All that's necessary is making it possible for people seeking out your type of product to find you. And for revolutionary products, there's word of mouth. If anything I think capitalism would function better without ads, because I would argue that advertising overall results in less informed customers, especially the modern lifestyle/brand type of advertising that's clearly quite effective at manipulating people.
  - chefandy 2y ago
    If there were no ads, how would people know that products existed? Would they just see the products on store shelves? What about services? Would labels be ads? Would how stores merchandise things be advertisements? Could businesses negotiate for specific product placement? How would you find out about stores? Would store signs be ads? How about really big ones? How about at the edge of their property along a road highway? Could the sign say what the store sold? If you were to start a product guide to help people find what they need, how could you possibly afford to buy enough products to be useful and up-to-date enough while slow crawl word of mouth got the business off the ground? Would asking people to tell their friends be an ad? If not, could you pay someone to spread the word about your product? Would traveling sales reps be ads? What if they wore head to toe logo gear? Could you just pay people to do that without selling things? Ads suck but I don’t see how a capitalist society could survive without them.
    - janalsncm 2y ago
      I think the definition would have to be an exchange of something of value for telling other people about a product. There are some companies that got off the ground with no paid advertising but I think they’re an exception. Generally people are not seeking out new products.
      - chefandy 2y ago
        But the whole point of a capitalist society is that competitors that do things better/cheaper start taking customers so the capital moves to the best and most efficient system.
  - janalsncm 2y ago
    It’s an interesting question I guess (and slightly worrying that I can more easily imagine the end of the world than the end of advertising). Especially if we take it to the extreme and imagine sponsored listings also don’t exist. I guess incumbents would have a big advantage. There are second order effects of ads that we’d need to consider. Facebook and Google wouldn’t exist as we know them. Maybe that means some of their research doesn’t happen?
zamadatix 2y ago
A selection 74 items over a 10 year period is a different proposal compared to e.g. keeping two tons of ad fliers from November 17th 1907 (and every other thing, every other day, all the time).

>...a two ton pile of ad fliers Alamy is selling scans of ad prints from the 1850s. https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/1850s-advert.html https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/1850s-advert.html

chgs 2y ago

Because they are rare

chefandy 2y ago
I don’t think that’s true? Tons of stuff from that era had been digitized, even before newer more relevant stuff and older rarer stuff, because the acid paper had a short shelf life and there were so many ads in printed stuff then. I might have a skewed perspective from working in the digitization world for quite some time. I think they’re selling what they sell with all their other content— discovery, curation, preparation, and easy delivery.

chefandy 2y ago

Ads range from a (necessary, in a capitalist society) nuisance to a scourge, and people justly put up increasingly thick boundaries to shield themselves from their influence. When waning cultural relevance or whatever dilutes that influence, you can more easily see the ads for what they are— often manipulative marketing tactics implemented through often genuinely beautiful art and design. Both aspects are fascinating to consider and the art can be quite enjoyable. Early modernist posters from Paris are beautiful. Watching collections of mid century television ads in the prelinger archives is fun, and tells us a lot about the ways we are influenced by modern ads speaking to current perspectives, fashions, and concerns.

ANewFormation 2y ago
Capitalism would work 100% fine without ads because people naturally compare and contrast options when buying stuff. All that's necessary is making it possible for people seeking out your type of product to find you. And for revolutionary products, there's word of mouth. If anything I think capitalism would function better without ads, because I would argue that advertising overall results in less informed customers, especially the modern lifestyle/brand type of advertising that's clearly quite effective at manipulating people.
- chefandy 2y ago
  If there were no ads, how would people know that products existed? Would they just see the products on store shelves? What about services? Would labels be ads? Would how stores merchandise things be advertisements? Could businesses negotiate for specific product placement? How would you find out about stores? Would store signs be ads? How about really big ones? How about at the edge of their property along a road highway? Could the sign say what the store sold? If you were to start a product guide to help people find what they need, how could you possibly afford to buy enough products to be useful and up-to-date enough while slow crawl word of mouth got the business off the ground? Would asking people to tell their friends be an ad? If not, could you pay someone to spread the word about your product? Would traveling sales reps be ads? What if they wore head to toe logo gear? Could you just pay people to do that without selling things? Ads suck but I don’t see how a capitalist society could survive without them.
  - janalsncm 2y ago
    I think the definition would have to be an exchange of something of value for telling other people about a product. There are some companies that got off the ground with no paid advertising but I think they’re an exception. Generally people are not seeking out new products.
    - chefandy 2y ago
      But the whole point of a capitalist society is that competitors that do things better/cheaper start taking customers so the capital moves to the best and most efficient system.
- janalsncm 2y ago
  It’s an interesting question I guess (and slightly worrying that I can more easily imagine the end of the world than the end of advertising). Especially if we take it to the extreme and imagine sponsored listings also don’t exist. I guess incumbents would have a big advantage. There are second order effects of ads that we’d need to consider. Facebook and Google wouldn’t exist as we know them. Maybe that means some of their research doesn’t happen?

zamadatix 2y ago

A selection 74 items over a 10 year period is a different proposal compared to e.g. keeping two tons of ad fliers from November 17th 1907 (and every other thing, every other day, all the time).