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This post came from this HN discussion earlier this week: What if we made advertising illegal? [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43595269#43599667 htt

This post came from this HN discussion earlier this week: What if we made advertising illegal? [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43595269#43599667 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43595269#43599667

justonceokay 1y ago
At this point next week there will be an article titled “What if we averted our eyes from advertising?”
- sa-code 1y ago
  Truly a disastrous slippery slope. "What if we looked at advertising, but not for too long?"
  - grues-dinner 1y ago
    Just the intro and only for a second.
- kubb 1y ago
  This is the only inexcusable proposal of the three. The whole point of effective advertising is that you can't escape it, and it penetrates your brain even if you actively resist it.
cies 1y ago
We should outright forbid it in public space. IHMO. Also I'd say lets only tax undesirable behaviour! So not tax: * wages * having a house * adding value (VAT) But so tax: * land use * polluting * packaging (could be part of polluting) * accumulating profits at the top This idea has some similarities to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism
- Galatians4_16 1y ago
  > We should outright forbid [advertising] in public space. IHMO. My cousin died to protect your right to say this. Ads are speech too.
  - orwin 1y ago
    Are limited liability companies people ? Because to me, it seems they are considered people when it's beneficial, and not when it's not. Weird.
  - zip1234 1y ago
    It's totally established precedent that billboards, signs, etc are limited. Whether they should be or not, I'm not sure, but that's how it is currently: https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/billboards/#:~:text=Court%20said%20public%20billboards%20were%20not%20a%20public%20forum&text=In%20Lehman%20v.,a%20myriad%20of%20other%20types. https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/billboards/#:~:text=...
  - cies 1y ago
    I think free speech is something to protect for humans, not for companies. I can say "you should get the vaccine!" Companies that want to say these kinds of things have rules to abide by: and thanks fully so. I'm much for free speech, but more in the sense that we should be able to discuss policy/politics/critique/bitch/bash/religions/etc. Not so we can make terror plans, defame, harass, bully and share child porn. Not sure what happened to your cousin... But I'm curious now. Care to share?
    - Galatians4_16 1y ago
      > Not sure what happened to your cousin... But I'm curious now. Care to share? My cousin served in the Armed Forces "to protect your freedom" (his words). The fact that he died during training maneuvers, does not detract from that.
      - cies 1y ago
ryandvm 1y ago
I love seeing the anti-advertising sentiment bubbling up. Social media addiction, 24 hour political news bubbles, pharmaceutical companies spending more on ads than R&D, consumership-based lifestyles, etc. All of it is driven by advertising being an acceptable business model. And we haven't even touched on the aesthetic crime of fucking ads being pasted on every surface in public. But here's a different take: unsolicited advertising is theft. It is the "fractional penny" heist perpetrated by the industrial advertising complex upon all of us, all of the time. Hear me out. You have a finite amount of mental attention that you can give in any given environment. Advertising companies are selling access to bits and pieces of this finite resource of yours. Sometimes they do this with your consent in advertising supported products you seek out (e.g. free YouTube or Spotify) and this is fine. But often you have not consented to spend your attention on their ads. You probably weren't laying on the beach, staring into the sky hoping to find the phone number of a personal injury attorney being towed behind an airplane. Or the latest weight loss drug plastered on the side of a city bus. Or 15 garbage pamphlets jammed into your mailbox. There's a reason all the dystopian, sci-fi media shows the beleaguered protagonist assaulted with personalized ads in holograms and on every surface. Because that is exactly where we're headed just as soon as they figure out how to do it if we don't legislate this shit away.
- mxfihdsgyxegaas 1y ago
  I think it's simpler than that: If watching ads is a valid way of "paying" for youtube, then what is the service/benefit you receive for watching ads in the sky?

justonceokay 1y ago

At this point next week there will be an article titled “What if we averted our eyes from advertising?”

sa-code 1y ago
Truly a disastrous slippery slope. "What if we looked at advertising, but not for too long?"
- grues-dinner 1y ago
  Just the intro and only for a second.
kubb 1y ago
This is the only inexcusable proposal of the three. The whole point of effective advertising is that you can't escape it, and it penetrates your brain even if you actively resist it.

cies 1y ago

We should outright forbid it in public space. IHMO. Also I'd say lets only tax undesirable behaviour! So not tax: * wages * having a house * adding value (VAT) But so tax: * land use * polluting * packaging (could be part of polluting) * accumulating profits at the top This idea has some similarities to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism

Galatians4_16 1y ago
> We should outright forbid [advertising] in public space. IHMO. My cousin died to protect your right to say this. Ads are speech too.
- orwin 1y ago
  Are limited liability companies people ? Because to me, it seems they are considered people when it's beneficial, and not when it's not. Weird.
- zip1234 1y ago
  It's totally established precedent that billboards, signs, etc are limited. Whether they should be or not, I'm not sure, but that's how it is currently: https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/billboards/#:~:text=Court%20said%20public%20billboards%20were%20not%20a%20public%20forum&text=In%20Lehman%20v.,a%20myriad%20of%20other%20types. https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/billboards/#:~:text=...
- cies 1y ago
  I think free speech is something to protect for humans, not for companies. I can say "you should get the vaccine!" Companies that want to say these kinds of things have rules to abide by: and thanks fully so. I'm much for free speech, but more in the sense that we should be able to discuss policy/politics/critique/bitch/bash/religions/etc. Not so we can make terror plans, defame, harass, bully and share child porn. Not sure what happened to your cousin... But I'm curious now. Care to share?
  - Galatians4_16 1y ago
    > Not sure what happened to your cousin... But I'm curious now. Care to share? My cousin served in the Armed Forces "to protect your freedom" (his words). The fact that he died during training maneuvers, does not detract from that.
    - cies 1y ago

ryandvm 1y ago

I love seeing the anti-advertising sentiment bubbling up. Social media addiction, 24 hour political news bubbles, pharmaceutical companies spending more on ads than R&D, consumership-based lifestyles, etc. All of it is driven by advertising being an acceptable business model. And we haven't even touched on the aesthetic crime of fucking ads being pasted on every surface in public. But here's a different take: unsolicited advertising is theft. It is the "fractional penny" heist perpetrated by the industrial advertising complex upon all of us, all of the time. Hear me out. You have a finite amount of mental attention that you can give in any given environment. Advertising companies are selling access to bits and pieces of this finite resource of yours. Sometimes they do this with your consent in advertising supported products you seek out (e.g. free YouTube or Spotify) and this is fine. But often you have not consented to spend your attention on their ads. You probably weren't laying on the beach, staring into the sky hoping to find the phone number of a personal injury attorney being towed behind an airplane. Or the latest weight loss drug plastered on the side of a city bus. Or 15 garbage pamphlets jammed into your mailbox. There's a reason all the dystopian, sci-fi media shows the beleaguered protagonist assaulted with personalized ads in holograms and on every surface. Because that is exactly where we're headed just as soon as they figure out how to do it if we don't legislate this shit away.

mxfihdsgyxegaas 1y ago
I think it's simpler than that: If watching ads is a valid way of "paying" for youtube, then what is the service/benefit you receive for watching ads in the sky?