Everything that makes advertisers happy is to the detriment of humanity as a whole. Everything that makes advertisers’ jobs easier also makes it easier for authoritarian governments. “Innovation” is no longer about creating new things, it’s about taking what already works, breaking it, shoving ads on it and charging a ransom in the form of a premium subscription.
On the other hand, there are endless ad-skipping tools, pages and sites where the main attraction is the lack of ads without a subscription. More and more people are talking about how intrusive and annoying ads are, even those who make their living from them. As the efforts of big tech to please advertisers grow, so do the efforts of ordinary people to screw them.
Very Cyberpunk.
On the one hand, yes. But also, it’s mostly capitalism.
I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with “I’m starting a frisbee club for fun. We’re going to meet saturdays in the park. I’m going to put up some flyers and tell my friends about it”.
But at some point that can mutate into “i put a 30 second unskippable ad for FrisbeeFranchise on youtube, and a giant billboard over the subway stop that implies if you don’t play frisbee you’ll never be happy”. That’s bad.
I think targeted ads should be illegal as a first step. I don’t think anyone except the worst sort of advertisers would go to bat for those. Old fashioned static ads where they put an ad for bike stuff by the bike lane in town is annoying, but somehow we’ve invented things so much worse than that.
LOL no, the advertisers won that war decades ago. It’s been an occupation ever since.
Say it with me:
“Its Capitalism”
The profit motive is killingbus and the planet.
Advertising is the reason why privacy is nonexistent now… it is kinda incredible just how much information they gather.
In centuries past when people were writing constitutions and what rights people have they had privacy and warrants and spying and all that shit done based on what evil governments can do to their citizens. I don’t think a single one of them ever realized just how fucking massive corporations would be and how much shit they steal from us.
The wildest part is that advertising has become so poisonous that now over 50% of a Americans use adblockers and over 1/3 of people world wide. It’s not just techies installing adblockers for their grandmas, it’s become mass market!
I think you mean Capitalism
What Bill Hicks said
i don’t know what happened to us as a society… we seem to have lost all semblance of media literacy.
it feels like in the 90’s we were all very ad-aware, and actively opposed the idea of ‘selling out’… then the rolling stones sold the rights to Start Me Up to windows and we’ve been in a race to the bottom ever since. why are we talking about ‘monetizing your hobbies’.
what happened to shows like Media Television, magazines like AdBusters? does nobody remember reading Naomi Klein’s ‘No Logo’??
edit: Remember when Adam Curtis made 'A Century of the Self?
Oh god the “side hustle” hobby culture gets me fuming mad.
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People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.
Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.
– Banksy
It’s that…the reason we are so dissatisfied with our lives? We may not even pay attention to most adverts, but subconsciously, they affect us and make us fell unhappy?
hi. you must be new here. welcome to capitalism, consumerism, and the modern dystopia. what will you be doing to destroy it?
yep, it’s a psychological attack (on your subconscious) to create unrealistic expectations and feelings of inadequacy among consumers who do not experience the same outcomes.
whether you pay attention to it or not, it’s still a psychic attack
I think that is literally, objectively evil. How can we fight back? I already use adblocks online, that is one way, I think.
Stop giving your money to the giant companies that fund and perpetuate surveillance ad tech. Shop local.
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I feel the same. Besides what you mentioned, there is also the effect on what news and content will be produced and shown (see Manufacturing Consent). The advertisers who are the customers of shows want the viewers in a buying mood. So while “if it bleeds it leads” works fine but controversial topics that disturbs people or make them think will not be shown.
Best example is youtube - once the demonetization came there must have been significant effects on what topics were discussed and how. Without sponsorings and patreon it would be worse, but this or rule is shaping our global civilization for the worse.
People pay far too much attention to ideology, but it’s the rules of a system that lead it to converge to different outcomes. And advertising is a big one.
Advertising exists to manipulate behavior beneficial to clients, out of target groups. It is propaganda and psychological manipulation. The days of simply informing people of products and services is a fairy tale. Maddison Avenue was built off of Nazi Germany’s mass media propaganda strategies.
I loved those old Chevrolet commercials from the 1930s that explained things like how a differential or transmission works in a car and I’m not even a car guy
I only remember the one, but yeah that was an absolute gem
Advertising, marketing, and the stock market are the worst aspects of capitalism, and the system could be improved dramatically with heavy restrictions on all of those. Yeah it would shrink the economy, but the new steady state would be much better. Less waste, better stuff.
The economy doesn’t represent the people, doesn’t feed anyone and doesn’t reflect their well being.
You have my vote.
If I had a magic internet/media button I know what it would be.
It would be a brand banish button. If I see an ad, I wanna just have a button to banish them from all my devices…forever. I already have a rule you poss me off with adverts …I defo won’t buy.
So much tech potential that just does not exist!
YouTube ads were only ever advertising to me on what not to entertain purchasing.
I agree. Everything being advertised on YouTube is sketch. Same with all the repeated podcast adverts honestly.
The fact that youtube hits me with an ad for a game that says everyone thinks its fake, with the most bullshit sounding voice over, tells me they are happy to take money for obvious scam products.
