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.

  • the16bitgamer
    2·
    1 day ago

    I agree for existing products. But for new products before reviews are there. It’s very very hard to make your product stand out. Or to convince buyers to try it out.

    • LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee
      2·
      11 hours ago

      Well it’s hard to imagine a world without advertising and just speculation, but there are a lot of videos on youtube and articles about new products. And stuff that is interesting would get upvotes, get shared and be trending. Of course there would need to be a different monetization scheme for youtubers.