In a lot of countries in the EU, advertising for tobaco products, prescription medication, lawyer/docts are prohibited. That ban has been working quite well for decades.

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onion2k 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This is true, but it's worth adding that there are no blog posts about those things either, or articles, discussions, etc except in very limited niche places dedicated to talking about them.

If there was a ban on 'internet advertising of anything' then it would basically kill all discussion of any products on the internet.

	▲	littlecranky67 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It wouldn't, we in Germany have clear laws when you have to mark something in media as "advertisment" - it is whenever you received a "reward" in order to talk about something, you have to mark it. A reward is already when you receive a product for free, or get reimbursed for travel cost etc. It is clearly definable. Yes, we will never reach 100% success rate, but 95% is already a big step.
	▲	xiconfjs 15 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Like what the internet was before advertising? ;)

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baxtr an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

In the US, sport teams usually don’t have sponsors on their jerseys. In the EU they do have every inch covered.