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What If We Made Advertising Illegal? (simone.org)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The idea feels like sci-fi because you're so used to it, imagining ads gone feels like asking to outlaw gravity. But humanity had been free of current forms of advertising for 99.9% of its existence. Word-of-mouth and community networks worked just fine. First-party websites and online communities would now improve on that.

The traditional argument pro-advertising—that it provides consumers with necessary information—hasn't been valid for decades.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

There is state funded news media called European Broadcasting Union, which can do whatever without ads.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Yet their flagship television program, the Eurovision Song Contest, is still being sponsored.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Well, then broadcasters might be beholden to the whims of the government. Certain content might be promoted, and other content suppressed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 16 hours ago

And if there’s corporate and ads, that doesn’t happen?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Because that absolutely doesn't happen now, it just removes the corporate middle man