Man Against Marketing
But what can we do? It just feels like the thought that we could easily abolish advertising in public spaces, if we wanted, doesn&#x27;t even occur to anyone. Some considerations:<p>- Governments (state as well as municipality) like having some inescapable public ad space, because they use it too, for announcements and such. Solution: decouple commercial advertising and government announcements.<p>- &quot;But how will people find out about new products?&quot; - yes, I&#x27;ve heard people say this without any irony, maybe nowadays we can respond that people are on their phones all the time so they can still see ads there. Some opt-in advertising solution (like jokoon is describing) could be an alternative as well.<p>- &quot;What about store signage and shop windows?&quot; - I think these shouldn&#x27;t be included in an outdoor advertising ban, however advertisers are sure to try and muddy the waters here to get small businesses on their side, so it would be wise to emphasize this from the start.<p>- &quot;I like ads, some of them look nice&quot; - replace billboards with trees, art, the sky...<p>- &quot;What about the revenue the city gets from advertising space?&quot; - The most hairy and perhaps most important point. I would like to make explicit all the implicit exchanges of value involved in advertising, but it might be too abstract for the average Joe. Someone pays the city to show me something. That means the ability to show it to me is worth more to them than what they pay the city. It also means that at the end of the day, the money is somehow coming from me, and this amount could be larger than what the city gets out of it, even. Therefore I would actually save money if the city abolished advertising and just raised taxes a little. Of course there is the false consciousness that many people have, &quot;<i>I</i> don&#x27;t get influenced by ads&quot;.<p>- Negative psychological effects of advertising, the basic human right to not have to look at something designed to manipulate you. I feel this on a deep level but you quickly start sounding like a crazy person if you explain it to someone who doesn&#x27;t really get this. Maybe an alternative would be to refer to objective studies relating advertising and wellbeing.