this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2025
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A Boring Dystopia
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Abbot Elementary apple sticker ads are clever, minimally invasive and I argue that this is what advertising should be.
This is a creative, tongue in cheek ad for a comedy about school teachers. Teachers stereotypically are given apples so its related.
You cannot compare this to the Pluribus fridge ads or car infotainment ads which make no sense other than "get more eyes on it".
An ad being clever doesn’t make it okay. And it’s not even clever, it’s just a basic reference. Ads being more pervasive are disgusting. This is disgusting. Is it okay for ads to be on literally every single surface in existence as long as it’s “clever” and “not too big”? Because the scum fucks in advertising firms will literally do whatever they can to cover every surface in garbage and this is just another step in that direction.
Fuck all advertising and destroy all advertisers. They will destroy everything in their path otherwise
Subaru is selling cars during the holiday season by telling a totally unrelated story about teens with cancer who are going to die before their prom. Easily the most exploitive commercial on TV.
Why is it not ok?
it probably would be fine in a time were advertisements weren't tied with cancer in favorability polls. nevertheless here we are and it is NOT ok.
Kind of a philosophical question from your response: is any type of advertising OK? I don't doubt that advertisers can and will continue to pollute every inch of our lives, but in a vacuum this is basically an ideal ad. Its minimal, clever, untargeted, temporary, for a decent show, and not massively over produced or jarring. To me, those aspects make it OK and I won't complain.
However, there's simply not enough opportunities like this for advertising to exist as an ethical profession. There's no point cheering it on or "voting with your wallet", it's not possible for 90% of products to have this serendipity. But I can't say "fuck all advertising" when it does technically serve a purpose and can very occasionally be done in an ethical and interesting way. I'd rather see this specific post than the majority of banal memes on my feed.
Consensual advertising is ok. You make a website for your business that I visit because I search for or advertise in the yellow pages or whatever it is fine. I sought out information and you are listed in a directory.
The problem of course is gaming these systems. SEO and shit. Some people will pay a great deal of money to be listed first. What’s fair? Is alphabetical fair? Does that give an advantage to “Aaron”? I don’t know. But we aren’t even at the point where this is a real discussion so it doesn’t matter I guess.
Otherwise the advertising profession has consistently shown that they have no ethics whatsoever and if you give them an inroad into your thing they will overtake and destroy it. The radio, newspaper, tv, internet, outdoors, literally everything. All the privacy concerns we have online tie back to advertising fucks and government overreach.
Well said.
There will always be slop advertisements. I avoid traditional advertising by pirating or paying for an ad free version. I do still watch ads in the form of product reviews and such. There are great products that I found through advertising that I otherwise wouldn't.
There is a lot of awful advertising and I'm numb to it, my brain doesn't even register it.
The problem is bad advertising works. My job is related to the text messaging industry. We have clients that spent six figures on sending marketing messages, for every dollar they are spending on text marketing they are making 5x more in profit.
I like to think that there will be a shift in advertising towards more thoughtful placement as consumers learn to ignore but honestly I think that's my own bias. Most people are susceptible to slop advertisements and so the slop will continue.
Your job sucks fuck you
I agree. And I fucking hate ads as well as never seen that show
It's a fun show and even more fun if you've ever worked in education.
Ad!!! Jk