I hate ads.
That’s it. That’s all I wanted to say. Just loathe them with a burning passion. More than i do anything else in my day to day life. I feel an urge to scream it into the world every single day just how much i despise ads and whoever invented them.
I hate ads.
I can’t escape them. I feel like i’m trapped in a sick psychological torture experiment. Can’t even go outside for a walk without seeing them everywhere. This is not how human beings should live.
I hate ads.
Do the people who make ads not feel any shame for what they are doing? Stop trying to sell me your shit, i don’t want it! I don’t want to give you my money, stop trying to take it away from me!
I hate ads.
You only notice how insidious and shit ads are once you properly experience what life is like without them. As someone who browses internet only with uBlock Origin, obtains media only through ethical means (piracy), I cannot stand ads at all. Then one day I am forced to experience ads. Like maybe I am visiting someone who is watching cable TV. And I cannot comprehend how someone just does not go berserk seeing ads.
My father was watching YouTube on a smart tv and there was a whole one and half hour movie as an ad. It was skippable but who puts an entire movie up as an ad? And why? They also put up kpop boy band music videos as ads. For my late-middle-aged Hindu fascist father, a fact that YouTube knows owing to the browsing history. I don’t understand advertising at all.
I was listening to a podcast, and the host was talking about how his son (early middle school age) apparently came home from school singing ad jingles just because of how much they were exposed to it. It’s basically the plot of a dystopian novel.
YouTube ads have gotten so intrusive and so frequent that it has become virtually impossible to use that platform without adblockers. You’d have to be a masochist to watch YouTube without them. And even when you adblock you still have sponsored segments in the videos themselves. Shit is inescapable.
In case you didn’t know, there’s a browser plug-in called Sponsorblock which help skip those in-video ad segments. It relies on user input to work, so someone has to watch the video and timestamp the ad segments and maybe a couple other important points in the video, but it works really well most of the time.
I’m always amazed by how much of the neoliberal economy is held up by ads. Producers want people to buy their products so bad that they literally throw away hundreds, thousands, millions of dollars so that 1.0% of us rubes might click a link or go to a drive-thru.
My brother works in marketing. He’s explained the ROI for ads. I just don’t believe it. It’s a fucking shell game.
One of the things I miss the most about growing up in USSR is not having ads shoved down my throat at every waking moment. Being able to walk around on a street without constant flashing lights trying to get your attention is frankly blissful.
I’ll never understand how people are like “okay I agree to a bit of brainwashing in exchange for watching this :)”
I do my best to actively work at not buying anything I see advertised. Often there’s little choice, but I like to think successfully showing me ads is a net negative to the company.
I do my best to actively work at not buying anything I see advertised.
Same, but at the same time we have to recognize that none of us are immune to psychological manipulation, even when we are aware that that is what they are doing. With enough repetition ads will still work subconsciously even though you may consciously make an effort to try and resist them. It’s mental rape. You did not consent yet you still have this shit thrust into your brain.
My agreement with you is deep like a mineshaft.
Every ad represents, in the final sense, a missed opportunity for a meaningful communication, displaced by redundant consumption.
