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I hate how normal ads seem to be to young people (under age 30). Just seeing TikTok videos secondhand on YouTube the videos seems stuffed with people pushing cr

I hate how normal ads seem to be to young people (under age 30). Just seeing TikTok videos secondhand on YouTube the videos seems stuffed with people pushing crap. YouTube channels none are without ads either by YouTube or by the channel owners. Plus the "oh you have an add blocker!!" whining if you dare try to slow the firehose of ads coming at you. Yes I do have an ad blocker because it seems my entire existence is fodder for your website or app's ad machine to capture and use.

mrngld 2mo ago
Lets be fair, here. Traditional TV was ~40 minutes of content with 20 minutes of ads. I still remember televised holiday movies "presented with limited commercial breaks by Folgers, where the best part of waking up..." or whoever was sponsoring it. Radio stations had to power their transmitters and pay their staff, so they had ads. Newspapers use ads to keep themselves affordable. This has always been a business model.
- kavok 2mo ago
  I believe radio across Europe was largely ad free and had a different business model. The BBC for example.
  - brulx126 2mo ago
    You say "was" as if it was a thing of the past. But public broadcasting still exists in many countries in Europe, including radio and TV. They have either less or no ads and their quality is much higher than that of purely ad-funded private stations that nowadays are sometimes even completely automated.
    - account42 2mo ago
      > their quality is much higher Hard disagree. At least commercial entertainment providers have to work to retain their customers, unlike public broadcasters where they get funded (either via taxes or forced licenses) no matter how many people dislike them.
      - brulx126 2mo ago
        It sounds like you are speaking from a theoretical perspective. In practice, there is not enough money in radio ads to put any effort in producing material of decent quality. As an objective metric, I found in Germany that the private stations literally broadcast at half the bitrate of the public stations where I tested it.
        account42 2mo ago
        No I speak from a practical perspective. Publicly funded radio and televisions is pure cancer. I don't care about the bitrate they use to encode their crap when it's crap in the first place.
- don_esteban 2mo ago
  I grew up under communism. On TV, we had full movies without ads. There was 3-5min ad segment right before main evening news, that was it. I could not understand how people can watch movie interrupted 10x by an add break. Not wishing the return of communism, but yeah, I would simply ban all ads. No useful purpose to the society, whatsoever. Treat it like smoking and other drugs. Yes, can fill the coffers, but overall it is detrimental to the society. If you want info about something you need, there are catalogues, consumer groups, enthusiast forums and internet search in general. Yes, the ads can be used to create new needs. Overall (if you really think what this achieves), that is a bug, not a feature. Yes, there will be ways to sneak-in ads in a shady way, but that can be prosecuted. And the scale of exposure matters, a lot.
- m4ck_ 2mo ago
  Also some TV shows had ads written in. USA network was pretty bad with this with ("White Collar" comes to mind - there are some pretty obvious Ford advertisements in a few eps, "Burn Notice" had very obvious alcohol placements.)
- dghughes 2mo ago
  Yes I was there it wasn't as bad as now. TV or radio it was never the same three ads over and over and over. And the media is now truncated so cram in more ads. Plus the time between ads is shorter. So it's basically ads with a brief TV show in between mostly ads.
- mrguyorama 2mo ago
  >Traditional TV was ~40 minutes of content with 20 minutes of ads. No! This is utterly false! TV for much of American history was about 9 minutes of advertising per hour of content. Then Cable came out with no ads at all. The US does not have a legal limit, so as our culture got more and more hyped about squeezing every single dime out of counterparties, companies have been increasing advertising. In the 60s, companies were willingly leaving money on the table. In the UK, you are still limited to only 9 minutes per hour of advertising.
- dartharva 2mo ago
  >Traditional TV was ~40 minutes of content with 20 minutes of ads That's generous. In less-privileged countries it was the other way round.

mrngld 2mo ago

Lets be fair, here. Traditional TV was ~40 minutes of content with 20 minutes of ads. I still remember televised holiday movies "presented with limited commercial breaks by Folgers, where the best part of waking up..." or whoever was sponsoring it. Radio stations had to power their transmitters and pay their staff, so they had ads. Newspapers use ads to keep themselves affordable. This has always been a business model.

kavok 2mo ago
I believe radio across Europe was largely ad free and had a different business model. The BBC for example.
- brulx126 2mo ago
  You say "was" as if it was a thing of the past. But public broadcasting still exists in many countries in Europe, including radio and TV. They have either less or no ads and their quality is much higher than that of purely ad-funded private stations that nowadays are sometimes even completely automated.
  - account42 2mo ago
    > their quality is much higher Hard disagree. At least commercial entertainment providers have to work to retain their customers, unlike public broadcasters where they get funded (either via taxes or forced licenses) no matter how many people dislike them.
    - brulx126 2mo ago
      It sounds like you are speaking from a theoretical perspective. In practice, there is not enough money in radio ads to put any effort in producing material of decent quality. As an objective metric, I found in Germany that the private stations literally broadcast at half the bitrate of the public stations where I tested it.
      - account42 2mo ago
        No I speak from a practical perspective. Publicly funded radio and televisions is pure cancer. I don't care about the bitrate they use to encode their crap when it's crap in the first place.
don_esteban 2mo ago
I grew up under communism. On TV, we had full movies without ads. There was 3-5min ad segment right before main evening news, that was it. I could not understand how people can watch movie interrupted 10x by an add break. Not wishing the return of communism, but yeah, I would simply ban all ads. No useful purpose to the society, whatsoever. Treat it like smoking and other drugs. Yes, can fill the coffers, but overall it is detrimental to the society. If you want info about something you need, there are catalogues, consumer groups, enthusiast forums and internet search in general. Yes, the ads can be used to create new needs. Overall (if you really think what this achieves), that is a bug, not a feature. Yes, there will be ways to sneak-in ads in a shady way, but that can be prosecuted. And the scale of exposure matters, a lot.
m4ck_ 2mo ago
Also some TV shows had ads written in. USA network was pretty bad with this with ("White Collar" comes to mind - there are some pretty obvious Ford advertisements in a few eps, "Burn Notice" had very obvious alcohol placements.)
dghughes 2mo ago
Yes I was there it wasn't as bad as now. TV or radio it was never the same three ads over and over and over. And the media is now truncated so cram in more ads. Plus the time between ads is shorter. So it's basically ads with a brief TV show in between mostly ads.
mrguyorama 2mo ago
>Traditional TV was ~40 minutes of content with 20 minutes of ads. No! This is utterly false! TV for much of American history was about 9 minutes of advertising per hour of content. Then Cable came out with no ads at all. The US does not have a legal limit, so as our culture got more and more hyped about squeezing every single dime out of counterparties, companies have been increasing advertising. In the 60s, companies were willingly leaving money on the table. In the UK, you are still limited to only 9 minutes per hour of advertising.
dartharva 2mo ago
>Traditional TV was ~40 minutes of content with 20 minutes of ads That's generous. In less-privileged countries it was the other way round.