I spend plenty of money and hate ads with a passion. There are good ads. Doubly so if it's an ad that appeared when I was searching for something I want and the product advertised fulfilled the expectations.
The problem is that the vast majority of ads does not fall into this category. They are actively trying to make you want something and manipulate you into buying things. We can't have nice ads, because the system almost invariably falls into a local minimum of plastering everything with carefully crafted ads that play into people's reptilian brains. The sociopathic and amoral part of adtech will invariably drown out the ones who try to play nice.
Perhaps I'm too jaded, but I just can't see how to change the status quo outside of strong regulation to break apart the existing adtech oligopolies. Unfortunately, even that is a gargantuan task because said adtech oligopolies wield incredible lobbying and political power.
And therefore I hate ads and hate what the adtech industry has become. We vilify the military industry, the oil industry, the finance industry and countless other industries who have often downright negative value contribution to society. And yet the adtech industry is still somehow innocent in the public eye, even though they are just as corrupt as the rest, it's just that the damage they are causing is more insidious.
The problem is that the vast majority of ads does not fall into this category. They are actively trying to make you want something and manipulate you into buying things. We can't have nice ads, because the system almost invariably falls into a local minimum of plastering everything with carefully crafted ads that play into people's reptilian brains. The sociopathic and amoral part of adtech will invariably drown out the ones who try to play nice.
Perhaps I'm too jaded, but I just can't see how to change the status quo outside of strong regulation to break apart the existing adtech oligopolies. Unfortunately, even that is a gargantuan task because said adtech oligopolies wield incredible lobbying and political power.
And therefore I hate ads and hate what the adtech industry has become. We vilify the military industry, the oil industry, the finance industry and countless other industries who have often downright negative value contribution to society. And yet the adtech industry is still somehow innocent in the public eye, even though they are just as corrupt as the rest, it's just that the damage they are causing is more insidious.