this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2025
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A Boring Dystopia
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i think eventually we're gonna have to deal with the reality that audio/video advertising needs to be outlawed. keep it in print if necessary.
Why does there still need to be advertisements though?
I'd completely ban marketing altogether. Their only purpose is to hack human brains in order to get them to buy stuff they otherwise wouldn't. They are the reason we have overconsumption.
Start with the example of the city of São Paulo, the 4th largest city in the world, which banned all outdoor advertising many years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cidade_Limpa
How would you even do that? Marketing is tied up into every single purchasing decision we make. The colors and fonts on the packaging; the perceived value or luxury of the store you're buying it from; the placement of the products within that store; the price of the product itself. All of these signal things about the perceived value of the product and influence what people purchase.
There are some things I want to know about that may or may not be considered advertising. Stuff like a band I like going on tour, or a video game I'm interested in releasing.
Maybe in your world those could just be like opt-in newsletters.
I think allowing print and physical media would enable using signs outside your building, use branding on your documents, etc. plus make it more valuable for the already dying media of print, and also pretty much make advertising an opt in situation since you can choose to engage in it, rather than having something like the fucking sphere blazed into your retina with the power of 15 suns in the middle of the night.
Banning "marketing" in general is impossible. In order for humans to survive, we need to acquire means of sustenance. With social division of labor, you cannot acquire all the means of sustenance you need by yourself or within your immediate community. As such, a market is necessary to exchange commodities, including means of sustenance and means of production, and the mere act of bringing a commodity to a market is, by definition, marketing.
Banning advertising in general is more possible, but probably a bad idea. Imagine you want to buy bread. How would you go about that? Look for a "bakery" sign? Whoops, that's advertising, can't have that. Your best bet then is, like, going into every single open door on the street until you find a bakery, which doesn't sound good at all.
What we should do is regulate advertising down to its minimum necessary function, which is helping people find what they are already looking for, plus maybe PSA type of ads (e.g. reminding you to get vaccinated and stuff). So yeah, most modern ads should be banned, but some should be kept because there is some actual use in them.
What about QVC tho
It could be moved onto a special "reservation" where it could continue to live in its own way, with its ancient customs and traditions.
So genocide?
Could go either way. We don't always have to repeat history.
Could we though, just this once, just for old times' sake?
Aww, go on. Just a teensy bit of genocide, as a treat.
I disagree. I think that's far too extreme, there shouldn't be blanket bans because big tech ruins it for everyone, it harms stuff like minor indie creators or small buisnesses, that being said it needs to be HEAVILY regulated, like fridges should never have ads nor any smart appliance
How about... we go a step further and just stop making appliances "smart"?
My toaster doesn't need AI to tell the difference between a fucking bagel and a slice of bread. They already figured out solutions to this shit decades ago.
Lots of appliances doesn't need to be smart, I agree, there are plenty borderline where I think there is some benifit, bulbs for example, I think things should be a lot more local, it's a shame people use cloud solutions instead of home assistant or how much telemetry these smart appliances are allowed to get.
I don't think a content provider should be allowed to have more than 5-10% of their content be advertisements.
Website screen space, newspapers, tv channels, etc
Instagram shouldn't have more than 1-2 sponsored post for every 20 posts. At the moment it seems closer to 10.
An hour long TV slot shouldn't have more than 3-6 minutes of advertisement. At the moment it's closer to 20-30.
Eh, I would say just ban all paid advertisements like ones you're describing. Want to advertise your product? Send it over to some state-run hub, which then randomly distributes it to professional reviewers. They then publish their findings, and if your product is good and people are looking for your product category, they will find you.
Get rid of stupid ads where the only reason they are shown to you is because someone is paid to stuff it in your face. Ads should be something you actively seek out, not something being shoved in your face.