Comment by make3
20 hours ago
Your work exploits people's addictive propensity and behaviours, and gives corporations incentives and tools to build on that.
Insane spin you're putting on it. At best, you're a cog in one of the worst recent evolutions of capitalism.
Exploitative ads are a small minority. I also think gambling advertising should be banned.
Advertising is not a recent evolution of capitalism, it's a foundational piece of it. Whatever you do as a job would not exist if there was no one marketing it. This hostility seems insane.
> Advertising is not a recent evolution of capitalism, it's a foundational piece of it
What does that say about capitalism?
Not having my job would be a tiny price to pay compared to the benefit of living in a world with no advertisements.
“No advertisements” seems extreme to me. I want to know when a good band is playing at a local venue, or has an album out. I like hearing about new books, or a restaurant near me.
The absolutist position that “all ads are always bad” is a non-starter for me. Especially as long as we exist in a capitalist system. Small business, indie creators, etc. must advertise in some fashion to survive. It’s only the behemoths that could afford to stop doing it (ironically). I’ve never really understood why, e.g. Pepsi and Coke spend so much on advertising: most people already have a preference and I am skeptical that the millions they spend actually moves the needle either way. (“Is Pepsi okay?” “It absolutely is not.”)
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Advertising always seems like a prisoner’s dilemma. If no one advertised, people would still buy things.
Yes but the advantage would be much more towards incumbents
The early theorists of capitalism didn't imagine that advanced psychology (that didn't even exist back then) would be used to convince people to buy $product.
Messages of that sophistication are always dangerous, and modern advertising is the most widespread example of it.
The hostility is more than justified, I can only hope the whole industry is regulated downwards, even if whatever company I work for sells less.
> Messages of that sophistication [...]
By demonising them, you are making ads sounds way more glamorous than they are.
>it's a foundational piece of it
No it's not