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Advertising is like pollution. Normal people realize they’re getting poisoned, but they still get to where they need to be, so don’t bother to change it.

We need to make collected data and metadata public. If a cabal of advertisers is considered an ethical steward of the information, a public database can’t be much worse. Scare the bejeezus out of moms and pops and watch the tide shift.

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lesuorac 2 days ago | parent [-]

I disagree, the problem is the race to the bottom in advertising.

Drugs ads being able to show 30s of the one positive side effect and then spend 0.5s speed talking through all the negative ones is not a fair description of the drug.

Almost every product advertising being here's a celebrity (who has no idea how the product works) using the product without any real description of what the product does. Imagine a car ad that had to show you had to pump gas!? It's like one of the most common things you do with a car.

And other product advertising being 100% vibe based. We're the company of tomorrow! The fuck does that even mean?

Conceptually, you need advertising. How else will you learn about new technology? The problem is that current advertising only teaches you the existence of something and not what it does.

	▲	alabastervlog 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> Conceptually, you need advertising. How else will you learn about new technology? Check in with trade organizations or whatever? I mean, fundamentally, this is what a sales catalog for a retailer is. That can be, and has been, one of the functions of a store as opposed to a manufacturer selling directly. I don't think any sane ban on advertising would prevent people from requesting information about new products (which could functionally be ads) which could well include uncompensated reviews in interest magazines or newspapers or whatever. "This store exists (on your maps app), here are their hours and the category of thing they do, and a link to their website" and once you're on the site, they can go nuts telling you about what they offer. There is very nearly zero value provided to society by advertising.
	▲	theoreticalmal 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I disagree. Who decides the relevant use cases for a given product? How does one handle the unforeseen use cases and advertise those? In my opinion, ads should be much more limited to brief, factual information to satisfy the “learn about new technology” piece. “This message is to inform you of a new product, X, made by company Y, intended to do A and B without the side effect of C.”