this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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What If We Made Advertising Illegal? (simone.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago by sundrei@lemmy.sdf.org to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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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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[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think anything that can't exist without money from advertising either shouldn't exist, or should be subsidized by taxes, not ads.

[–] lovely_reader@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Tricky territory when you're talking about journalism.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

No doubt. And plenty of other things. Since the government doesn't actually have the best interests of it's people in mind. Bring on the AI overlords, since AI doesn't have emotional reasons to hurt us for it's own gain, maybe it will be better. Lol