this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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Mildly Interesting

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This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.

This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?

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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.

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[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

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?

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[–] slappypantsgo@lemm.ee 3 points 6 months ago

Let’s ban all persuasive advertising! No reason not to let people make a list of features or something, like a notification, but that’s it.

[–] Ultraviolet@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

How exactly do you define advertising? An overly broad definition would forbid, for example, a dentist from putting a sign in front of their office saying they're a dentist.

[–] Shayeta@feddit.org 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Paying somone else to advertise for you. You yourself holding up a sign promoting yourself is fine, paying someone else to hold up a sign for you is illegal.

[–] MDCCCLV@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't get a lot of ads already, and I could honestly use more in terms of new games and movies coming out. Word of mouth doesn't work great for obscure things either.

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