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If you saw a giant, attention grabbing billboard for something you are looking for, you wouldn't hate it. In the context of roads, these are businesses putting

by GuB-42 1y ago

If you saw a giant, attention grabbing billboard for something you are looking for, you wouldn't hate it. In the context of roads, these are businesses putting their signs on the side of the road. For example I usually find billboards/signs pointing to the nearest supermarket, restaurant or gas station to be useful, because that's the kind of thing I may want do do when I am driving, and I am getting useful information out of them. Driving-related products like tires are annoying on a billboard on the side of the road because I am obviously not going to look at my tires while I am driving, and it is usually not something you have an urgent need for. They are however relevant (and therefore less annoying) in a gas station, where you can check your tires as you are filling up your tank. It may even give you the idea of checking tire pressure, which is a good thing. One of the most clever driving-related ad was a letter I received from the garage I did car maintenance with, reminding me a couple of weeks before the next scheduled maintenance that it was to be done (with, of course, an offer on their part). It was useful, yet 100% an ad. And yeah, we usually call things "ads" when they are annoying and by some other word when they are not, and advertisers tend to avoid the word for this reason. Calling it "sponsored" for instance. But it doesn't change that fact.

fluidcruft 1y ago
I think you are complaining about the signs that happen inside cities particularly on roads where traffic gets backed up and slow. Beyond that it's gas/food/hotels/motels/tourist attractions... and religious speech. But in urban areas where it's AC repair, plumbers, injury lawyers or whatever lets be real: you're not missing much of a view.
antisol 1y ago
> If you saw a giant, attention grabbing billboard for something you are looking for, you wouldn't hate it. Yes, I would. When I'm looking for something, I search for it until I find it, and then after that I'm not looking for it anymore. I don't go for a drive through the countryside in the hopes that system76 have put up a billboard which blocks the view of the countryside but shows me the specs for their latest laptop model.
- therealpygon 1y ago
  This is the problem. Ads may not work as well for some people (who hate them) but they work great on others. Unfortunately, because the ones it does work on spend money, the rest of us are stuck in advertising hell. I don’t want AR glasses for productivity or the social media bs they want to push; I want them to blight out every f’n ad that is everywhere. When they can do it in-device with no internet connection and I’ll fork over 1k for glasses immediately.
  - gjm11 1y ago
    Given that so far the nearest things to successful AR glasses have been produced by Google and Meta, I think the relationship between wearing AR glasses and seeing ads is unlikely to go the way you are hoping. (I too would love there to be AR glasses that you can put arbitrary software on, only under your control, rather than that of some rapidly-enshittifying company that has the device locked down. I suppose it's not strictly impossible that that might happen, but it doesn't seem like it's the way to bet.)
  - rixed 1y ago
    You can achieve some of that by moving to a foreign country which language you don't understand. A good experiment to realise what a relief it is to suddenly have all offline advertisements removed (and some online too, when localised based on IP)
- GuB-42 1y ago
  The thing is that you are not looking for a new laptop while you are driving, but you may be looking for a gas station because your "low fuel" light just turned on. And how are you going to find that gas station (which may not be exactly on the road you are driving on) if there is no sign advertising for it? You can tell me you can pull over and look at a map, or program it on your navigation app. Not only it is not the most convenient, maybe even unsafe, but how do you think that gas station ended up on that map? Most likely the business paid for that, making it an ad. That's the idea, we dislike that laptop ad because we usually don't buy laptops while we are on the road, it is an irrelevant attention grab, especially when that billboard is disproportionately large. But a gas station, restaurant or convenience store is relevant to a significant fraction of the people on the road, and when the sign is reasonable, we don't usually call it a billboard, even though it is an ad and not a sign like a speed limit.
Xelbair 1y ago
Of course I would hate it. Ads are just mental warfare against you. Its someone trying to manipulate you for profit. If I drive somewhere I know where I want to go. If I need supplies I can pull over and check on the map where the nearest store is. In such case I don't care what store it's, just it's proximity.
- aembleton 1y ago
  > In such case I don't care what store it's, just it's proximity. So you'd go to a hardware store for food? Surely you need to know what they sell.
  - Xelbair 1y ago
    Are you being obtuse on purpose? Or is it natural?
    - aembleton 1y ago
      It's on purpose to make the point that advertising serves a purpose. If advertising has hammered in to me that Tesco sells food and Screwfix sells power tools then my brain has a ready made map of what those chains sell. I don't have to visit and find out for myself.
      - Xelbair 1y ago
        are you unable to comprehend difference between pull and push communications?
anton-c 1y ago
You sound like an ad exec. I never want ads ever, they are by their nature intrusive. I have never bought anything from a targeted ad on social media. If one plays and I can't turn down the volume quick enough I will make noise to avoid hearing it. If an ad is placed in a way that forces you to look at it you have every right to want to remove it. If it's in my personal power, I do.
- adrr 1y ago
  If it didn’t work on people companies wouldn’t spend hundreds of billions of dollars on ads. Everyone says the same thing that ads don’t work on them but the data says otherwise.
  - anton-c 1y ago
    It clearly does. That's why my post was about avoiding it at all costs. I however can confidently stand by my no purchase claim. I'm guessing you arent actually clicking facebook ads(if u don't run adblock for some odd reason.) It's not difficult to avoid that.
- chistev 1y ago
  Have you read those comments about how people who says ads don't work on them fail to realize it works on them subconsciously when they go shopping?
  - t400 1y ago
    Such a claim needs evidence; by its nature, it insulates itself from counter-arguments based on experience. If person X says "ads don't work on me", the state "I experience no influence from ads because they don't work" is indistinguishable from "I experience no influence from ads because they're so sneaky that they only affect me subconsciously". Unfortunately, it's very hard to get individual-level evidence. You can get population-level evidence, but sometimes that evidence shows that the ads don't actually work (for instance, The Correspondent's 2019 articles about the subject).
  - 1y ago

by GuB-42 1y ago

fluidcruft 1y ago

I think you are complaining about the signs that happen inside cities particularly on roads where traffic gets backed up and slow. Beyond that it's gas/food/hotels/motels/tourist attractions... and religious speech. But in urban areas where it's AC repair, plumbers, injury lawyers or whatever lets be real: you're not missing much of a view.

antisol 1y ago

> If you saw a giant, attention grabbing billboard for something you are looking for, you wouldn't hate it. Yes, I would. When I'm looking for something, I search for it until I find it, and then after that I'm not looking for it anymore. I don't go for a drive through the countryside in the hopes that system76 have put up a billboard which blocks the view of the countryside but shows me the specs for their latest laptop model.

therealpygon 1y ago
This is the problem. Ads may not work as well for some people (who hate them) but they work great on others. Unfortunately, because the ones it does work on spend money, the rest of us are stuck in advertising hell. I don’t want AR glasses for productivity or the social media bs they want to push; I want them to blight out every f’n ad that is everywhere. When they can do it in-device with no internet connection and I’ll fork over 1k for glasses immediately.
- gjm11 1y ago
  Given that so far the nearest things to successful AR glasses have been produced by Google and Meta, I think the relationship between wearing AR glasses and seeing ads is unlikely to go the way you are hoping. (I too would love there to be AR glasses that you can put arbitrary software on, only under your control, rather than that of some rapidly-enshittifying company that has the device locked down. I suppose it's not strictly impossible that that might happen, but it doesn't seem like it's the way to bet.)
- rixed 1y ago
  You can achieve some of that by moving to a foreign country which language you don't understand. A good experiment to realise what a relief it is to suddenly have all offline advertisements removed (and some online too, when localised based on IP)
GuB-42 1y ago
The thing is that you are not looking for a new laptop while you are driving, but you may be looking for a gas station because your "low fuel" light just turned on. And how are you going to find that gas station (which may not be exactly on the road you are driving on) if there is no sign advertising for it? You can tell me you can pull over and look at a map, or program it on your navigation app. Not only it is not the most convenient, maybe even unsafe, but how do you think that gas station ended up on that map? Most likely the business paid for that, making it an ad. That's the idea, we dislike that laptop ad because we usually don't buy laptops while we are on the road, it is an irrelevant attention grab, especially when that billboard is disproportionately large. But a gas station, restaurant or convenience store is relevant to a significant fraction of the people on the road, and when the sign is reasonable, we don't usually call it a billboard, even though it is an ad and not a sign like a speed limit.

Xelbair 1y ago

Of course I would hate it. Ads are just mental warfare against you. Its someone trying to manipulate you for profit. If I drive somewhere I know where I want to go. If I need supplies I can pull over and check on the map where the nearest store is. In such case I don't care what store it's, just it's proximity.

aembleton 1y ago
> In such case I don't care what store it's, just it's proximity. So you'd go to a hardware store for food? Surely you need to know what they sell.
- Xelbair 1y ago
  Are you being obtuse on purpose? Or is it natural?
  - aembleton 1y ago
    It's on purpose to make the point that advertising serves a purpose. If advertising has hammered in to me that Tesco sells food and Screwfix sells power tools then my brain has a ready made map of what those chains sell. I don't have to visit and find out for myself.
    - Xelbair 1y ago
      are you unable to comprehend difference between pull and push communications?

anton-c 1y ago

You sound like an ad exec. I never want ads ever, they are by their nature intrusive. I have never bought anything from a targeted ad on social media. If one plays and I can't turn down the volume quick enough I will make noise to avoid hearing it. If an ad is placed in a way that forces you to look at it you have every right to want to remove it. If it's in my personal power, I do.

adrr 1y ago
If it didn’t work on people companies wouldn’t spend hundreds of billions of dollars on ads. Everyone says the same thing that ads don’t work on them but the data says otherwise.
- anton-c 1y ago
  It clearly does. That's why my post was about avoiding it at all costs. I however can confidently stand by my no purchase claim. I'm guessing you arent actually clicking facebook ads(if u don't run adblock for some odd reason.) It's not difficult to avoid that.
chistev 1y ago
Have you read those comments about how people who says ads don't work on them fail to realize it works on them subconsciously when they go shopping?
- t400 1y ago
  Such a claim needs evidence; by its nature, it insulates itself from counter-arguments based on experience. If person X says "ads don't work on me", the state "I experience no influence from ads because they don't work" is indistinguishable from "I experience no influence from ads because they're so sneaky that they only affect me subconsciously". Unfortunately, it's very hard to get individual-level evidence. You can get population-level evidence, but sometimes that evidence shows that the ads don't actually work (for instance, The Correspondent's 2019 articles about the subject).
- 1y ago