I don't agree with this conflation of labelling and signage with advertising, to the benefit of the latter. It's not the same thing at all.
The milk carton has a label so that you know what is inside it. If you were to put the same graphic on a billboard, does that give you useful information about the billboard? Of course not: the advertisement just attempts to influence the decision you will make when shopping for milk in the future.
Likewise, it's one thing to put a store's logo on the building containing the store, and quite another to put it on a billboard, newspaper, or a TV spot. The sign on the building tells you what's in it, which is useful if you are looking for that store; the advertisement hopes instead to implant a desire to go look for the store, which may not otherwise have occurred to you.
Attempting to create a desire for goods or services people might otherwise never have wanted, in hopes of getting money from them they might otherwise not have chosen to spend, does not seem like it is doing any favors for the people being targeted. While a milder sort than many other forms of evil, I do think advertising qualifies.
Advertising as a concept isn't evil. Marketing methods that are commonly employed these days (especially online) are, though. When marketers stop spying and putting effort into defeating the defenses of people trying to avoid their spying, and when they stop engaging in outright psychological manipulation, then they can start to make an argument that they aren't evil without me laughing.
Hey, author here. Good point! Historically, all sales people are in a way manipulators, and the best of them are those who know human psychology and behavior. This hasn't changed with how we advertise today. But we should be more restrictive with how we handle the data, who can access it and what they can have access to. That's not as much on the advertising industry as it is on regulations around technology, which is only a recent subject for discussion.
marssaxman|1 year ago
The milk carton has a label so that you know what is inside it. If you were to put the same graphic on a billboard, does that give you useful information about the billboard? Of course not: the advertisement just attempts to influence the decision you will make when shopping for milk in the future.
Likewise, it's one thing to put a store's logo on the building containing the store, and quite another to put it on a billboard, newspaper, or a TV spot. The sign on the building tells you what's in it, which is useful if you are looking for that store; the advertisement hopes instead to implant a desire to go look for the store, which may not otherwise have occurred to you.
Attempting to create a desire for goods or services people might otherwise never have wanted, in hopes of getting money from them they might otherwise not have chosen to spend, does not seem like it is doing any favors for the people being targeted. While a milder sort than many other forms of evil, I do think advertising qualifies.
true_pk|1 year ago
JohnFen|1 year ago
true_pk|1 year ago
billy99k|1 year ago
Most people aren't trying to 'avoid their spying'. They want something for free, without ads.
CRConrad|1 year ago
scblock|1 year ago
unknown|1 year ago
[deleted]