What if we banned all advertising? Not regulate it—abolish it. This proposal would transform manipulation machines, and maybe save democracy itself. A thought experiment worth considering.

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.

  • SorteKaninA
    74·
    22 days ago

    Isn’t the problem with banning ads that you’d just gets “ads” that aren’t marked as such? Like, ads are still going to happen, they just won’t be clearly marked cause that would be illegal.

    EDIT: Would love to hear how the downvoters would enforce an advertisement ban. What happens when an influencer randomly endorses a brand and then that brand also just coincidentally happens to give the influencer a “generous donation” or perhaps a life-time usage coupon?

    • CoffeeKills@lemmy.world
      4·
      22 days ago

      Yes the 90s kids shows were all vehicles to sell toys and cereals because advertising to kids directly was heavily restricted.

    • HubertManne@piefed.socialEnglish
      2·
      23 days ago

      yeah basically the word of mouth and community networks will become ads and you will get things like leave five stars and get some shit with tell your friends and get some shit.