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Furiously seconded. Ads are just a tax that we pay both with our attention and then with our wallets. Every dollar that a company forks over to Google is a doll

by kibwen 10mo ago

Furiously seconded. Ads are just a tax that we pay both with our attention and then with our wallets. Every dollar that a company forks over to Google is a dollar they recoup by passing the costs on to you, for absolutely no benefit whatsoever to the product you're paying for. Destroy this heinous rent-seeking industry.

charcircuit 10mo ago
You are ignoring the value of discovering a good or service. Increasing the customer acquisition cost for a company to infinity doesn't make them lower their prices. It makes them go out of business because they have no customers.
- kibwen 10mo ago
  People are really out here acting like we didn't have a functioning economy before we invited ad companies in to parasitize global commerce. I don't give a fuck if it means "less discoverability", if I could snap my fingers and make every ad company disappear tomorrow, the world would be a better place.
  - tpmoney 10mo ago
    When did we have a functioning economy without ads? Was it the 1980's when some of the most classic children's shows were 30 minute commercials for toys? Was it the 1960s when Charles Schultz was lamenting the commercialization of Christmas in the Charlier Brown special? Maybe the 1910's when Uncle Sam famously wanted you to join the army? Was it the 1890's when Montgomery Ward and Sears were sending out mail order catalogs? Was it the 1860's when you could learn that "The Best Glass of Ale In the Globe" was available at Isabella Nesbitt's Inn[1]? Town criers and traveling medicine shows date back to at least the 1700's. Less intrusive ads? Less frequent ads? Sure I can get behind that (though, I can turn off a TV, can't turn off the town crier). But ads have been a part of us since the first person with something to sell wanted to sell it. [1]: https://bailiffgatecollections.co.uk/gallery-category/victorian-advertisements/ https://bailiffgatecollections.co.uk/gallery-category/victor...
    - Dylan16807 10mo ago
      They said "ad companies" not the entire concept of ads.
      - tpmoney 10mo ago
        What is an "ad company" though? If it's someone you pay to advertise your product for you, well that's something town criers often did for merchants so "ad companies" are at least that old.
        Dylan16807 10mo ago
        I don't know exactly what definition they meant, but I'm confident that a crier doesn't count as an ad company.
        thaumasiotes 10mo ago
        Geez, if you think people don't like banner ads or billboards, you should see what they think of town criers.
        Dylan16807 10mo ago
        Criers are expensive. And I'd say that mattress shop guy qualifies and he doesn't bother me that much. I would happily take a deal that gets rid of all tv and video ads and replaces them with as many independent criers as companies are willing to pay.
        tpmoney 10mo ago
        I will note we effectively have that law already for political text spam. No robo-texting it has to come from a “real” person. Doesn’t seem to have changed the amount of text spam I get, they just all start with “This is Bob from People Against Things …” You could probably hire a lot of “town criers” on fiver for the cost of a 30 second TV spot.
  - charcircuit 10mo ago
    It is what enables global commerce.
- tonyedgecombe 10mo ago
  >You are ignoring the value of discovering a good or service. This has very little value to me. I'm buying my wife a new car next year and I won't be perusing adverts to find what to buy. If I did I would be thoroughly mislead as the adverts are full of aspirational bullshit. Adverts encourage people to eat unhealthy food, take unneeded drugs, drink, smoke, buy more house than they need and replace perfectly functional consumer goods. They make everybody's life worse (apart from the advertisers). Commerce won't stop without them. I've mostly eliminated them from my life but that hasn't stopped me from spending my money.

by kibwen 10mo ago

charcircuit 10mo ago

You are ignoring the value of discovering a good or service. Increasing the customer acquisition cost for a company to infinity doesn't make them lower their prices. It makes them go out of business because they have no customers.

kibwen 10mo ago
People are really out here acting like we didn't have a functioning economy before we invited ad companies in to parasitize global commerce. I don't give a fuck if it means "less discoverability", if I could snap my fingers and make every ad company disappear tomorrow, the world would be a better place.
- tpmoney 10mo ago
  When did we have a functioning economy without ads? Was it the 1980's when some of the most classic children's shows were 30 minute commercials for toys? Was it the 1960s when Charles Schultz was lamenting the commercialization of Christmas in the Charlier Brown special? Maybe the 1910's when Uncle Sam famously wanted you to join the army? Was it the 1890's when Montgomery Ward and Sears were sending out mail order catalogs? Was it the 1860's when you could learn that "The Best Glass of Ale In the Globe" was available at Isabella Nesbitt's Inn[1]? Town criers and traveling medicine shows date back to at least the 1700's. Less intrusive ads? Less frequent ads? Sure I can get behind that (though, I can turn off a TV, can't turn off the town crier). But ads have been a part of us since the first person with something to sell wanted to sell it. [1]: https://bailiffgatecollections.co.uk/gallery-category/victorian-advertisements/ https://bailiffgatecollections.co.uk/gallery-category/victor...
  - Dylan16807 10mo ago
    They said "ad companies" not the entire concept of ads.
    - tpmoney 10mo ago
      What is an "ad company" though? If it's someone you pay to advertise your product for you, well that's something town criers often did for merchants so "ad companies" are at least that old.
      - Dylan16807 10mo ago
        I don't know exactly what definition they meant, but I'm confident that a crier doesn't count as an ad company.
        thaumasiotes 10mo ago
        Geez, if you think people don't like banner ads or billboards, you should see what they think of town criers.
        Dylan16807 10mo ago
        Criers are expensive. And I'd say that mattress shop guy qualifies and he doesn't bother me that much. I would happily take a deal that gets rid of all tv and video ads and replaces them with as many independent criers as companies are willing to pay.
        tpmoney 10mo ago
        I will note we effectively have that law already for political text spam. No robo-texting it has to come from a “real” person. Doesn’t seem to have changed the amount of text spam I get, they just all start with “This is Bob from People Against Things …” You could probably hire a lot of “town criers” on fiver for the cost of a 30 second TV spot.
- charcircuit 10mo ago
  It is what enables global commerce.
tonyedgecombe 10mo ago
>You are ignoring the value of discovering a good or service. This has very little value to me. I'm buying my wife a new car next year and I won't be perusing adverts to find what to buy. If I did I would be thoroughly mislead as the adverts are full of aspirational bullshit. Adverts encourage people to eat unhealthy food, take unneeded drugs, drink, smoke, buy more house than they need and replace perfectly functional consumer goods. They make everybody's life worse (apart from the advertisers). Commerce won't stop without them. I've mostly eliminated them from my life but that hasn't stopped me from spending my money.