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Ignoring political implications here and just on a personal level I wish political ads were banned. Quite possibly my least favorite type of ad to see and I've
by tdb7893 1y ago
Ignoring political implications here and just on a personal level I wish political ads were banned. Quite possibly my least favorite type of ad to see and I've never felt meaningfully informed by them (generally quite the opposite).
- fsflover 1y agoI would go even further: banning all ads, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43595269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43595269
- dangus 1y agoSounds like a good way to trap everyone with incumbent corporations. No quitting your corporate job to start your own business, you’re not allowed to advertise.
- dietr1ch 1y agoYou are conflating slapping ads in people's faces with making your business listed on the white/yellow/whatever pages and allowing people to find you without being a jerk.
- esafak 1y agoThat directory for tech would be like ProductHunt. Do you like it?
- JoshTriplett 1y agoThe yellow pages are ads, that's why for a while it was really hard to stop getting the phone company to stop leaving it as trash on your doorstep.
- dietr1ch 1y agoBut we don't need paper these days. What I meant is to switch from being shown somewhat relevant ads while you try to do something else, to searching for relevant stuff whenever you truly need it.
- guiambros 1y agoYellow pages, really? Like, let's ban ads and brig back yellow pages", and everything will be solved? And, if you were not aware, how do you think Yellow Pages made money? [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_pages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_pages
- gus_massa 1y agoNot that I think it's a good idea, but ... You go to Google, type "refrigerator" and you get two buttons * Please show me only adds, sorted by how much they paid to Larry and Sergey * Please show me only somewhat organic results, sorted by relevance or whatever, and discount me $1 to pay for the servers and crawers.
- dietr1ch 1y agoYeah, but serving that doesn't cost that much and dropping the advertisement platform would drop it further (and let engineers fix search instead of shaving milliseconds from ad bidding)
- dangus 1y ago1. Yellow pages were paid ads 2. If a “directory” is the only advertising mechanism allowed it benefits the incumbents because incumbents are the only ones who have existing brand recognition. I don’t need a directory to know about Coca-Cola or Google Maps. You would have had to ban advertising at the dawn of time for this to work.
- dietr1ch 1y ago1. It makes sense that the business are the ones paying to get listed and vetted. We are now starting to need those blue checkmarks for a reason, some verification process is necessary, and then serving costs. 2. Why? You wouldn't search by business name, but by need. What about "nearby bakeries" or "pop soda" only benefits the better known brands? Indexing by name isn't the only way.
- dangus 1y agoFor #1 I think the idea basically violates the idea of banning advertising. For #2, I think that established brands essentially wouldn’t need to be searched for. In the status quo I can pay to put up a billboard next to McDonald’s and say “I make a better burger two blocks down.” But if I’m not allowed to do that a lot of people will just assume that McDonald’s is the place to go for a fast food burger.
- dietr1ch 1y ago1. No, it puts people in control of when they query the index instead of spamming everywhere eyesight could possibly stare at. 2. That's fine, you want something new or something you don't know where to get? Query an index. You want the good ol' experience? Go for what you already know well. If you worry about the people who would never discover anything new, then it's like they don't talk to anybody or have no desire of changing anything, but that's their decision.
- dangus 1y agoWhat if the “good old experience” is Microsoft in the late 1990s with a nearly 100% marketshare? You don’t know anyone who uses another system and you assume that all other options either don’t exist or can’t possibly be as good. There’s almost zero word of mouth and you haven’t bothered to consult a directory since you’re 100% confident that the only operating system in the world is Windows [1] Do you not recognize how this scenario can work to preserve monopolies? How does Apple come back from the brink of bankruptcy without their iconic iMac and iPod marketing campaigns? And how do you flip the switch to making advertising illegal when incumbent companies have already enjoyed the benefit of legal advertising for hundreds of years? We ban advertising, and I start my new soft drink company, but Coca-Cola got to advertise for 100+ years already. The cat has been out of the bag for thousands of years. [1] https://www.overclock.net/threads/teacher-calls-linux-%E2%80%9Cillegal%E2%80%9D-threatens-to-call-cops.424430/ https://www.overclock.net/threads/teacher-calls-linux-%E2%80...
- simion314 1y agoThere could be an index where you list your product/service, so people can find your stuff when they need it. But yeah will be harder to manipulate people to buy your miracle supplement or other garbage that is 99% of the current ads I see. I do not watch Tv, use ad blockers so after years of not watching TV I watched a bit recently and most ads are supplements/"naturists medicine" and for some reasons on youtube without the ad blocker they always show me the same ad over and over again(it is funny Google is trying to sell me the product from the company I work for, and somehow showing me same ad each day would convince someone to eventually try something they are not interested in)
- thewebguyd 1y ago> showing me same ad each day would convince someone to eventually try something they are not interested in * not interested in right now. Showing the same ad to the same person (or cohort of people) works. Eventually, someone in the cohort may be interested in that product/service at some point in their lfie and they are more likely to pick a brand they are familiar with. They are now familiar with that brand after having seen it everywhere all over their internet browsing, sometimes for months or years at a time.
- porridgeraisin 1y agoYeah. Don't want that. Of course it works, but so does drugging people. Doesn't mean it needs to be allowed. When I want it, ill initiate a fresh search and find whatever I find, at that time. Don't want things leeching into my subconscious just because you want it to be your brand that I use later.
- dangus 1y agoWhat’s your stance on signage on physical brick and mortar businesses? Logos on products? Where should we be drawing this line? And who benefits most from that line being drawn?
- porridgeraisin 1y ago
- thewebguyd 1y agoThat'd be great. But how would you define what's advertising and what's not? I've built a relatively successful professional photography side hussle without "advertising" as in, I've never paid for an ad on any of the social platforms or google ads. Most of my business comes from word of mouth, or hits on my website. But, is the SEO I do advertising? What about when I share my work to my socials, is that advertising? Post a reel of behind the scenes footage of me photographing a wedding so potential clients can see my process, is that advertising? I do all of those things with the goal to drum up business, but they fall outside of the traditional meaning of the word. Likewise with product placement in films, influencer marketing, etc. How do we even begin to draw the line at what is an advertisement and whats not?
- Certhas 1y agoWe have successfully banned Cigarette ads. Not saying there aren't things to sort out, and lines to be drawn, but it's by no means impossible.
- jacobgkau 1y agoWe've successfully banned cigarette ads from TV and radio. We haven't banned them from the wall at gas stations. They're also not banned on the internet, legally. Do you want to ban advertising, or ban TV and radio advertising?
- xnorswap 1y agoYour jurisdiction might not have, mine has, for almost 30 years now. They're sold under the counter (literally) / behind shutters, in plain packaging. They certainly are not advertised on posters.
- noir_lord 1y agoIn the UK they are sold behind blank displays and the packaging is generic as well. Sure it’s Unrelated but smoking is now 1 in 8 adults and dropping. You can ban this type of advertising if you enforce it.
- baby 1y agoIMO a bad idea, ads help with discoverability and is one of the most effective mechanism for growth. This includes for small and big businesses. I think it makes more sense to target what kind of ads should be banned (e.g. politics, alcohol, cigarets, religion, etc.) and what ads format should be banned (e.g. loud ads, ads in the subway, etc.)
- walkabout 1y ago> what ads format should be banned Practically all of them unless I've asked to receive them. I'd absolutely sign up to receive info about new products from certain industry groups, niche product promoters, some stores, et c.
- baby 1y agoI get that you're upset at ads in general, because they're on your face all the time, but banning them out right doesn't seem right. I mean this is what keeps a lot of very useful services free.
- renewiltord 1y agoPlease don't shill someone's blog here. This kind of "native advertising" is not appreciated. If you have a point, make it. Don't just use it as an opportunity to astroturf a blog.
- fsflover 1y agoI gave a link to an extensive HN discussion, not a blog.
- renewiltord 1y agoSure you did. And the link at the top of the page was just a coincidental "banner ad" that you had nothing to do with. If you simply wanted to share that content without the link, it's just plain HTML. Trivial to do. It's not ethical for you to be doing this kind of submarine advertising on HN without disclosure. Please just admit what you're doing rather than pretending.
- fsflover 1y agoLet me disclose that I have no connection whatsoever with the linked blog.
- Dylan16807 1y agoAre you doing some kind of bit here? It's easier to share HTML than... a link? If this is supposed to be an analogy to how people will argue over what's an ad so a rule is infeasible, it's a bad analogy. If it's literal then you're not making sense.
- cj 1y ago> Campaigners say the law will cause a harmful loss of information I find this quote from the article amusing. If EU political ads are anything like USA political ads, the objective of the ad is rarely, if ever, to educate the audience. The objective of most political ads is to confuse, disorient, and distort the narrative.
- floxy 1y ago>distort the narrative Whatever would we do if we didn't have the corporate/billionaire narrative to guide our lives!
- jopsen 1y agoI don't think the political ads are like in the US. Not at all. Also the scale is no where near. TV2 in Denmark just ran an article saying that the 24 politicians and parties buying the most ads bought a total of 250k ads ahead of this policy coming into effect. Note that same month last year the spend was ~1/3. I know Denmark is small, ~5-6M, but that's doesn't seem like a lot of money.
- beezlebroxxxxxx 1y agoThe amount of money in US politics and elections in particular is staggering when you think about it. In 15 weeks Kamala Harris' campaign spent $1.5 billion. That's just insane. Especially when you find out that a lot of that spend goes through "media consultancies" and PR firms...run by former DNC staffers. And the same is true for the RNC. The two parties are basically a giant revolving door and network of jobs with access to this enormous slush fund.
- docdeek 1y agoHere in France the presidential candidates who make it to the second round are limited to spending €22.5 million over the course of the entire campaign (first and second rounds). About half gets reimbursed from public funds, so you 'only' need to raise about €10-12 million. Hard limits on campaign donations (about €4K) mean big money impacts the race less, and limits on advertising means you don't have to spend it on TV ads or direct mail. Spending $1.5 billion on a campaign (and still losing) is near unfathomable.
- ThatMedicIsASpy 1y agoThe worst form of physical ads in Germany. A slogan or a face and the party name printed on paper and hung up on the streets everywhere. So wasteful.
- Reason077 1y agoSounds like a pretty standard election sign/billboard design in any country.
- dylan604 1y ago> generally quite the opposite Very much this. These ads make me very much not want to vote for the candidate which is the opposite of what they wanted.
- immibis 1y agoThe advertising industry keeps repeatedly finding that no matter how much you think an ad turned you off a product, you're still more likely to buy that product after seeing the ad, and the more times you see the ad, the more likely you are to buy it. No matter how the ad made you feel.
- austin-cheney 1y agoYeah, political ads are so toxic but worse its just lazy money. I am really tired of super PACs buying my politicians with this garbage. I would rather my politicians come down to the district here and hold rallies or town halls where they can lie to us in person. Yes, I am fully aware the next problem in all this is how does the politician then notify the district of the place and time of the next meeting. It would be great if congress, as a body, had a mechanism in place to handle this so that it is equally applied for any registered candidate regardless of party affiliation or primary favoritism. Seriously, if politicians want cheap media coverage then they should do something worthy of coverage. There is one politician I can think of right now, far outside my local district, that is on one edge of the political spectrum and simultaneously performing the miracle of picking up tremendous popularity from the opposite edge of the political spectrum. They finally learned to tune their messaging from party political theater to rapidly changing opinions on current events in ways other politicians cannot. I am hearing way more about people like that than the person from my district, who isn't doing anything worth of media attention.
- yieldcrv 1y agoSuper PACs are the dumbest of dumb money, and I'm surprised this forum isn't solely about extracting money from them They have no shareholders or fudiciary duties, they are formed as non profits 501(c)4's with no purpose except their stated political position (for a policy / candidate, or against a policy / candidate) and this comes with no limitation on what they can own and do with the money and this is all based on the flawed theory that spending equals votes it's the dumbest reality that I thought would have been solved by constitutional amendment after Citizen's United but nope! how are you not taking advantage of this stupidity! the spending has only grown from all sides
- tehjoker 1y agoCommercial ads are also designed to manipulate you emotionally or otherwise present you with information that induces a desire to buy what you otherwise didn't need.
- MattDaEskimo 1y agoDepends on your definition of "political ads". If your definition is: an ad that explicitly involves a party/politician, why? It seems like they're going to happen regardless, the difference is the subtly. For example, there's a lot of accounts purposefully pushing ideologies, and focusing on specific events for a political purpose on social media. Arguably, these are much more dangerous than explicit political ads.
- mytailorisrich 1y agoBanning political ads would completely negate what a democratic free society is.