What could a movement to directly punish advertisers look like? Ones who pass a certain threshold of ruining the venue they're sponsoring or generally worsen a community, online or off. Why do they get a pass, no matter how far they encroach on ruining environments and institutions?

> What could a movement to directly punish advertisers look like?

By directly punishing advertisers, you mean e.g. punishing McDonald's for its billboard ad, rather than the owner of the billboard? If it's effective, we just get all the ads replaced with Taboola and gambling ads that are immune to negative public opinion.

When lawful jerks become enough of a problem a common approach is to outlaw the worst of their jerk-y behavior. The state is set up to collect and investigate complaints, issue sometimes-escalating fines, hear appeals, etc., all on behalf of we the people, so that another organization doesn't have to manage doling out "punishment".

For example, my state doesn't have billboards, because they're illegal here and that law is well-enforced. That's a method of "punishing advertisers" who would go too far toward ruining our views.

I'm not sure what a legal, non-governmental solution would look like. Consumer boycotts can work, but are hard to organize and sustain. Egging their offices? Tar and feathers? Oh, wait, I said legal...