Advertising Is a Cancer on Society
He doesn&#x27;t quite say it by name, but most advertising is a classic arms race. Especially given how the internet now makes information easily available, a great deal of advertising is about manipulating consumers to pick company A&#x27;s products over those from competitors B, C, and D. This forces those other companies to spend to get and keep customers. It&#x27;s pure waste.<p>For example, everybody on the planet is now familiar with soft drinks. If anybody has never tasted Coke, it&#x27;s not by accident. But Coke&#x27;s ad budget is enormous. If all soft drink companies stopped advertising tomorrow, society would not be worse off. And we&#x27;d have billions of dollars [1] to spend on something useful.<p>Like the author, I won&#x27;t work on ad tech. I don&#x27;t like manipulation and I don&#x27;t like waste, and most advertising is both.<p>[1] e.g., <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;notesmatic.com&#x2F;pepsico-advertising-and-marketing-budget&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;notesmatic.com&#x2F;pepsico-advertising-and-marketing-bud...</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.investopedia.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;markets&#x2F;081315&#x2F;look-cocacolas-advertising-expenses.asp" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.investopedia.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;markets&#x2F;081315&#x2F;look-co...</a>