Ok like. Imagine life without ads. You wake up, check your messages across a variety of apps, no ads. You get up and put on the tv while you prep your breakfast, no ads. Maybe you drive somewhere and switch on the radio, no ads. Maybe you drive a long distance, yet somehow, not a single billboard on your path. You pick up a newspaper or magazine to pass the time, no advertisements only articles. You turn on your game console, the home screen is just about your games, no ads to buy more. You open a streaming app, you don't pay extra for no ads, there's just no ads ever.
Think about how much of your time is spent looking at ads. "Download ublock" yeah I know, I have. But that doesn't change that the world is covered with endless advertising. Imagine never seeing that again. How much better our lives would be.
I always wonder what counts as an advertisement in these perfect worlds (not a criticism! a metric for fun thought experiment!)
A proud college freshman wears their university pullover every day. Is this a walking advertisement?
A recipe column mentions a local bistros fascinating new twist in a classic dish. Is this an ad?
The radio plays a song. The song is presumably for sale somewhere. Is this an ad?
The library has a sign out front near the road so folks know where to turn. So does the private clinic, are these signs ads?
A box of food shows the food within, accessibility for people who cannot read the text language. The food is photographed to look so enticing. Is this an ad?
Its not intentionally irritating pedantism, its the concept of what makes something an advertisement. And once we set that metric, how hard will companies push that metric to its limit with psychologists and billions of dollars behind them?
This morning my inbox was filled with adverts from micro artists online whose patreon Id joined specifically to buy products and follow updates and I found myself irritated that Id received ads Id specifically signed up to receive and it made me think about how fickle we are about when we do and dont want to learn about products
