Beyond feeling annoyed and manipulated, advertising is a constant reminder of our broken systems. Endless conspicuous consumption. Infinite growth. It’s like a cancer.

We also hate pushy sales people. Same shit different cringe

Because so many of them are poorly done.

I used to be okay with ads. Back then, they were on television often and gave you a chance to check on things, use the restroom, etc. Internet advertising in the 90s and early 2000s was annoying and pervasive. I was fine with banner ads and only one popup, because you could easily close it and crack on.

But then ads (and the Internet) became personalized with pervasive and predatory tracking. Coupled with the manipulation of algorithms, I’ve grown to despise most centralized systems. I hate advertising and now I make sure to take heavy measures to block as much as I can and reduce my footprint as much as possible within my control.

If companies turn off their telemetry and the personalization, stop selling my information with reckless abandon, and stop leaking my data where they claim “your privacy and security is important to us”, then and only then will I disable my ad blockers.

I had a shower thought the other day; what would the world be like if advertising didn’t exist?

No billboards or giant signs everywhere blocking our views. Content would be better because it wouldn’t be interrupted by commercials. But think of how much money is spent on advertising? Companies would have to invest that into other areas to be successful instead, such as cheaper and/or better quality products, or higher wages for their workers. Companies would have to work really hard to get a good reputation so their products could spread through word of mouth instead of using advertising to invade everyone’s space.

I’m sure there’s some downsides, but it sounds kind of amazing.

I took some marketing classes in university, and from my perspective the biggest issue is that the entire concept of marketing is based on lies. At no point were we taught that you should be trying to reach people who would benefit the most from your product, nor should you be trying to inform people what your product is or does. The sole purpose of marketing is to ensure that people buy your thing for the highest profit possible, whether that means convincing them the product is more valuable to them than it actually is, or that they need it more than they actually do.

Your goal as a marketer is to exploit every dark psychological trick that the field of psychology has ever discovered, all of the horrible quirks in human nature that cause us to do things that don’t make sense. All of the logical fallacies that constrain people’s thinking are the tools in your toolbox. Xenophobia, outrage, escapism, false dichotomies, etc. are the bread and butter of the marketer. There is fundamentally no difference between marketers and con artists.

The most simple answer.

Ads or commercials are typically an interruption to the content I was wishing to watch.

I’m out here trying to save enough money to get by, it’s annoying to keep seeing all the things I can’t afford paraded in front of me constantly. Some of them I wish I could afford, some of them I’d never buy if I had the chance.

It strikes me as companies with too much access and too much money looking to drain my accounts to add it like a drop of water to their swimming pool they already have.

They interrupt your current activity, they are often louder than the content you actually want to see, they are often repeated so often that they are grating and they often feature realy terrible acting.

An example I remember from s few years ago, when a chain of health clinics was expanding hard here in Sweden, the ad was constant for months, it started with an older woman who started her first sentence about how good the clinic was with a soft chuckle, that chuckle became increadibly grating.

I decided right then and there that that I will never do business with them.

I say it is more the adverts themselves disrespecting our senses (radio adverts being louder than the station music or presenter, TV ads flashing colour) or adverts masquerading as regular content ^{even with sponsored tags}

*Edit* And for internet ads, the sheer amount of personal data that is collected to build an advertising profile on you.

They’re engineered to be as obnoxious and often deceptive as possible.

I don’t mind adverts that show what a product is and what it costs, but those ones apparently underperform compared to the flashy/loud/clickbaity shit that’s infested the internet and any other space that gives them a route to invade your field of view.

Ad blockers are a must now-a-days; any video that shoves that “and now a word from our sponsors!” shit in the middle of it gets a thumbs-down; and I’ll actively avoid products I see on billboards / physical adverts.

why we aren’t attacking marketers and salespeople more often. I swear if we all focused on a week or a month by breaking the kneecaps of any salesperson or marketing agent while tormenting their families

That escalated quickly.

advertising itself isnt the problem… its the abuse of advertising by MBAs who have been told if their numbers dont increase every quarter, they are failures and their compensation will reflect that. its the requirement that a business is always growing despite how blatantly impossible that is.

but its not just those sales folks… its the entire executive structure up to the top that authorizes such behaviors.

you end up with an enshittified world.

I don’t mind buying things, sometimes I even enjoy it. I hate being sold things.