this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2025
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A Boring Dystopia
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i think eventually we're gonna have to deal with the reality that audio/video advertising needs to be outlawed. keep it in print if necessary.
Why does there still need to be advertisements though?
I'd completely ban marketing altogether. Their only purpose is to hack human brains in order to get them to buy stuff they otherwise wouldn't. They are the reason we have overconsumption.
Start with the example of the city of São Paulo, the 4th largest city in the world, which banned all outdoor advertising many years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cidade_Limpa
How would you even do that? Marketing is tied up into every single purchasing decision we make. The colors and fonts on the packaging; the perceived value or luxury of the store you're buying it from; the placement of the products within that store; the price of the product itself. All of these signal things about the perceived value of the product and influence what people purchase.
There are some things I want to know about that may or may not be considered advertising. Stuff like a band I like going on tour, or a video game I'm interested in releasing.
Maybe in your world those could just be like opt-in newsletters.
I think allowing print and physical media would enable using signs outside your building, use branding on your documents, etc. plus make it more valuable for the already dying media of print, and also pretty much make advertising an opt in situation since you can choose to engage in it, rather than having something like the fucking sphere blazed into your retina with the power of 15 suns in the middle of the night.
What about QVC tho
It could be moved onto a special "reservation" where it could continue to live in its own way, with its ancient customs and traditions.
So genocide?
Could go either way. We don't always have to repeat history.
Could we though, just this once, just for old times' sake?
Aww, go on. Just a teensy bit of genocide, as a treat.
I disagree. I think that's far too extreme, there shouldn't be blanket bans because big tech ruins it for everyone, it harms stuff like minor indie creators or small buisnesses, that being said it needs to be HEAVILY regulated, like fridges should never have ads nor any smart appliance
How about... we go a step further and just stop making appliances "smart"?
My toaster doesn't need AI to tell the difference between a fucking bagel and a slice of bread. They already figured out solutions to this shit decades ago.
Lots of appliances doesn't need to be smart, I agree, there are plenty borderline where I think there is some benifit, bulbs for example, I think things should be a lot more local, it's a shame people use cloud solutions instead of home assistant or how much telemetry these smart appliances are allowed to get.
I don't think a content provider should be allowed to have more than 5-10% of their content be advertisements.
Website screen space, newspapers, tv channels, etc
Instagram shouldn't have more than 1-2 sponsored post for every 20 posts. At the moment it seems closer to 10.
An hour long TV slot shouldn't have more than 3-6 minutes of advertisement. At the moment it's closer to 20-30.