People are really out here acting like we didn't have a functioning economy before we invited ad companies in to parasitize global commerce. I don't give a fuck if it means "less discoverability", if I could snap my fingers and make every ad company disappear tomorrow, the world would be a better place.

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tpmoney 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

When did we have a functioning economy without ads? Was it the 1980's when some of the most classic children's shows were 30 minute commercials for toys? Was it the 1960s when Charles Schultz was lamenting the commercialization of Christmas in the Charlier Brown special? Maybe the 1910's when Uncle Sam famously wanted you to join the army? Was it the 1890's when Montgomery Ward and Sears were sending out mail order catalogs? Was it the 1860's when you could learn that "The Best Glass of Ale In the Globe" was available at Isabella Nesbitt's Inn[1]? Town criers and traveling medicine shows date back to at least the 1700's.

Less intrusive ads? Less frequent ads? Sure I can get behind that (though, I can turn off a TV, can't turn off the town crier). But ads have been a part of us since the first person with something to sell wanted to sell it.

[1]: https://bailiffgatecollections.co.uk/gallery-category/victor...

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Dylan16807 2 days ago | parent [-]

They said "ad companies" not the entire concept of ads.

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tpmoney 2 days ago | parent [-]

What is an "ad company" though? If it's someone you pay to advertise your product for you, well that's something town criers often did for merchants so "ad companies" are at least that old.

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Dylan16807 2 days ago | parent [-]

I don't know exactly what definition they meant, but I'm confident that a crier doesn't count as an ad company.

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thaumasiotes 2 days ago | parent [-]

Geez, if you think people don't like banner ads or billboards, you should see what they think of town criers.

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Dylan16807 2 days ago | parent [-]

Criers are expensive. And I'd say that mattress shop guy qualifies and he doesn't bother me that much.

I would happily take a deal that gets rid of all tv and video ads and replaces them with as many independent criers as companies are willing to pay.

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tpmoney a day ago | parent [-]

I will note we effectively have that law already for political text spam. No robo-texting it has to come from a “real” person. Doesn’t seem to have changed the amount of text spam I get, they just all start with “This is Bob from People Against Things …”

You could probably hire a lot of “town criers” on fiver for the cost of a 30 second TV spot.

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Dylan16807 a day ago | parent [-]

When I say I would accept town criers to get rid of those ads I mean literal town criers. Not people sending me mail, email, texts, or calls. People being kinda loud and/or holding up big signs in public places. They can offer me a flyer when I walk by, I suppose.

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tpmoney a day ago | parent [-]

Sure I get it. I just don't think your annoyance level is going to go down that much. It wont take many sign twirlers on every corner, or people driving up and down your neighborhood at all hours of the day with a "ad truck" to be more annoying than the worst of youtube's advertising. Imagine if every fedex or ups truck and amazon van you see was also blaring a loud speaker advertising businesses. Door to door salesmen are less prevalent because other forms of advertising are cheaper, but if you can't do those other forms of advertising, door to door becomes economically competitive again. I'm pretty sure a "town criers only" world would be significantly more grating and annoying than you think. Imagine "liberty tax" sign holders during tax season, but all the businesses and all the time.

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Dylan16807 a day ago | parent [-]

> people driving up and down your neighborhood at all hours of the day with a "ad truck"

I doubt that would be an efficient use of money, and that doesn't really seem like crier behavior.

And is that kind of noisemaking legal in most places?

If I need to specify the criers only use their own voice, then consider that specified.

> Imagine if every fedex or ups truck and amazon van you see was also blaring a loud speaker advertising businesses

Blocking that double use is part of why I tossed "independent" into my earlier post.

And door to door salesmen coming onto my property definitely don't count as criers.

	▲	tpmoney a day ago \| parent [-]
		> I doubt that would be an efficient use of money It works for ice cream trucks, and when you ban all other forms of advertising, it's not like there's any more efficient places to spend that ad money. > Blocking that double use is part of why I tossed "independent" into my earlier post. So we'd just wind up with fleets of "independent contractors" doing deliveries for part of their income and advertising for the other part. It's not like a bunch of those vans and trucks aren't already contractors in the first place.

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charcircuit 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

It is what enables global commerce.