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What If We Made Advertising Illegal? (simone.org)

submitted 1 day ago by sundrei@lemmy.sdf.org to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world

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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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[–] n7gifmdn@lemmy.ca -2 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

You'd put a lot of people out of work.

[–] flying_sheep@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 hours ago

Any progress does that. The issue is not that there's less work, the issue is that capitalism makes that into a bad thing.

Less work should mean more leisure, more time for hobbies and passion projects, not reduced living standards.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 3 points 7 hours ago

A lot of people have jobs that aren't really necessary, and exist so that the working class doesn't revolt too hard under capitalism.