I agree with a lot of this but I think it’s excessive to say involvement in any ad makes you terrible. Local band puts up flyer at local bar. Karaoke MC says he’ll be at bar Y next week and back here same day next month. I don’t think that makes them bad people. I certainly don’t think it makes the people who designed the flyer bad people. I think ads have become bad and pervasive, but in reality they could and should serve a purpose. If there’s something I’d be interested in, I want to know about it, but there’s no way for me to subconsciously just get all of that information. Newsletters, another form of advertising, are a great way to do this, but those too have suffered. Ads could at least be somewhat informative, but now they’re all just “brand awareness”. I think that’s one of the big issues. I understand the perspective of wanting a 0 ad life, but I think a lot of that mindset comes from the abuse ads have done. Autoplay video ads? Abhorrent. Small ad on a bar website telling me when happy hour is? Helpful. That’s just my opinion, obviously, but I thought I’d mention as an alternative perspective.
Those local ads clutter the landscape and litter. They also wouldn’t be necessary if people went back to local community engagement for things like art rather than over reliance on corporate art forms, eg if advertising didn’t permeate every facet of our existence the problem might self correct.
Also in a just society one could just play music to enjoy the art form rather than submit to the vanity of self promotion to try and gather fame.
You’re also confusing advertising with information. The bar website having information on happy hour is not an ad. That is information. This is why the yellow pages were not an ad. The difference here is consent. You chose to seek that information out, so it is fine. Obviously there needs to be a way to find information for like local mechanics and shit. But getting a flyer in the mail from one? Yuck.
I agree with a lot of this but I think it’s excessive to say involvement in any ad makes you terrible. Local band puts up flyer at local bar. Karaoke MC says he’ll be at bar Y next week and back here same day next month. I don’t think that makes them bad people. I certainly don’t think it makes the people who designed the flyer bad people. I think ads have become bad and pervasive, but in reality they could and should serve a purpose. If there’s something I’d be interested in, I want to know about it, but there’s no way for me to subconsciously just get all of that information. Newsletters, another form of advertising, are a great way to do this, but those too have suffered. Ads could at least be somewhat informative, but now they’re all just “brand awareness”. I think that’s one of the big issues. I understand the perspective of wanting a 0 ad life, but I think a lot of that mindset comes from the abuse ads have done. Autoplay video ads? Abhorrent. Small ad on a bar website telling me when happy hour is? Helpful. That’s just my opinion, obviously, but I thought I’d mention as an alternative perspective.
Those local ads clutter the landscape and litter. They also wouldn’t be necessary if people went back to local community engagement for things like art rather than over reliance on corporate art forms, eg if advertising didn’t permeate every facet of our existence the problem might self correct.
Also in a just society one could just play music to enjoy the art form rather than submit to the vanity of self promotion to try and gather fame.
You’re also confusing advertising with information. The bar website having information on happy hour is not an ad. That is information. This is why the yellow pages were not an ad. The difference here is consent. You chose to seek that information out, so it is fine. Obviously there needs to be a way to find information for like local mechanics and shit. But getting a flyer in the mail from one? Yuck.