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0 pointsAerroon4y ago0 comments

>If I run around you all day shouting expletives at you, you might consider that there's nothing that I do that fundamentally gets in your way for as long as I keep a certain distance. But it will be annoying, exhausting and likely detrimental to your mental health in the long term.

But that's different. Ads in real life are passive. They are part of the environment like the color of the house. They don't actively interact with you specifically.

>Advertisement insofar that it lets consumers stay aware of the available alternatives for the products they need and use is a good thing

And the vast majority of people will never ever check that to find relevant things to them.

0 comments

boomlinde4y ago

> But that's different. Ads in real life are passive. They are part of the environment like the color of the house.

So let's say that the "color of my house" is obscene and disturbing imagery designed specifically to elicit an emotional response in viewers for the sake of making them feel bad. Point still stands; you don't have to actively get in someone's way to be a nuisance that's detrimental to the quality of life and leaves people worse off than without it.

It's also worth mentioning that advertisement overwhelmingly refers to its targets in second person exactly to create the subtle illusion of addressing you specifically. To some small degree our brains probably don't recognize the difference.

> And the vast majority of people will never ever check that to find relevant things to them.

If I'm not actively looking for things that will improve my life, perhaps I am already content with my situation, and the things in question actually aren't that relevant to me.

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