A world without Advertisement

Hi

Throughout many various forums there have been exhaustive discussions on the damage of over exposure to advertisement. The idea that one's mind cannot comprehend the constant flow of information coming from all senses as we walk down the street or watch the joke what is television. It has got to the point instead of taking all the info in some literally shut down as much input as possible to give time for recovery. This takes many forms such as meditation, alcohol or drugs...anything to remove yourself from the constant pushing of information.

That has brought me to the place of a world without advertisement on any scale. What would this world look like? I understand many will say that there is a middle ground between the two extremes. However I don't think there is. Taking away the massive signs in the cities and the huge screens flashing ads 24/7 we then move onto colours etc. In order to take away all forms of advertisement would colour also be considered advertising.
In my mind a world without any advertisement and pushing of unwanted information would be something that could bring the human species forward in evolution. Imagine walking the streets with all stores in pure white. No colour just the black text names of what the store offers. All clothes would not have symbols or brands like walking billboards. Television would be limited due to the cutting of all ads leaving a fraction of shows left. Which would eventually die off with the loss of funds from the ads.

What I'm getting at is would this not be a much better extreme than the extreme we are currently living in? Why is it that our minds "need" stimulated in order to feel happiness or excitement. Is it not from the same minds that create these advertisements? The same creative minds building world's in books, architecture, art and technology.
Would this be a much more advanced way of living where the beauty and potential of EVERY single mind on earth will be allow to come out unaltered and unaffected by ideas being pushed upon it.

The creativity and potential of the human mind should be allowed to express itself free from the shackles that is the war for our minds.

Bill Hicks got it right.

Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.
...George Orwell

Companies would open and fail, people would be jobless as they would be restricted to their home town looking for job as there is no chance of expansion of business (no adverts for jobs). No point in making new things for people to enjoy as due to lack of advertising you would be again restricted to local trade keeping costs up.

Books, plays etc would still be big as they always have been. But we would not really surpass our current state of tech.

Without advertising people who want to learn would be restricted once again to local education not knowing that there are bigger better schools of learning out there unless they happen to come across someone who knows of said school. Many great minds could be wasted due to lack of knowledge.

If someone a few towns over had come up with a cure for X and due to it only being word of mouth to people who are interested in peddling the drug someone just out of trade reach could die because they didnt know about the cure.

Because without advertising the internet would be completely different as people would need to keep domains up with sales. But lets face it, if everyone sold the same thing there would only be one site doing well. etc etc

These may seem extreme cases but think about it, if you remove brands and advertising; lets say over night. What, 1 billion+ out of work instantly.

People hate adverts, but lets face it for every 1000 you see, you see one which perks your interest and you buy the item in question. That then in part, pays for the store which then pays in part for the creation, which in part pays the workers who made it. All because you saw a advert.

a reply to: liteonit6969

I'd like kids banned from adverts - it's annoying for so many reasons..... But I think we would see a huge drop in art & media with a small rise in technological progress - more object designers, less BS Artists - with all adverts banned......

I think we'd be in a top-down state and adverts would not be needed (except perhaps for RESISTANCE PURPOSES, Tag Codes on walls, leaflet drops etc.)... Even bottom-up Real Direct Democracy where IDEAS/PROJECTS are publicly proposed and viewable is a form of 'advertising'... You CANNOT ESCAPE THE ADS!

I prefer to break the topic down into No Videos, No Photos, No Pictures, No Audio and finally NO TEXT... Text Only Adverts being my preferred compromise between GETTING NOTICED and getting rid of those irritating mind-mashing DISTRACTIONS..... Audio for the visually impaired as their choice.

Then there's FULLY VOLUNTARY ADVERTISING......... Where you can choose to help a website by visiting its adverts page - with no adverts on the rest of the site... But TV is EXPENSIVE, even Youtube - advertising helps fund them.. Employs many people not clever enough to work in engineering, too, design-wise.. I'd BAN COLD CALLING marketing...

As a Strong Libertarian on some issues, a Private Members Club, that can be selective in its membership and services offered, can not advertise in public... This goes for Churches that refuse gay weddings too - child restrictions on membership/serving allowed for all orgs/firms......

a reply to: liteonit6969

I like advertising! A large part of my income as a video producer/filmmaker comes from making ads for local businesses and now I'm on the media team for our local GOP campaigns. We are gearing up for a blitz of ads featuring our local and state candidates as are all political parties.

I realize that ads can create sensory overload and in the near future we all will be sick of the red, white and blue pandering for attention and votes. It's already started. Perhaps, develop a type of mental firewall that will block out the offending media blitz.

but ads can be entertaining, informative and fun. We live in the information age and there is no turning back.
Here is one of my Doritos ads for the "Crash the Superbowl" competition for filmmakers.
Sorry if it offends you but we had a blast making this short film even though we didn't make it in the running for the one million dollar prize. Thanks for the opportunity to show some of our work....

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: liteonit6969

Advertising is free (or perhaps not so free) speech at the very least.

I think the underlying problem most of us have with advertising (me as well) is the reflection it appears to show us, the fun house mirror.

The trick to having a culture which holds intellectual and artistic expression in high regard is to not believe everything you hear and that certainly includes advertising.

As consumers it is our duty to not reward fools with our money and attention, some cannot live up to that bar.

I think that's OK.

originally posted by: thekaboose
Companies would open and fail, people would be jobless as they would be restricted to their home town looking for job as there is no chance of expansion of business (no adverts for jobs). No point in making new things for people to enjoy as due to lack of advertising you would be again restricted to local trade keeping costs up.

You seem to have missed the real upside here....the most powerful thing that would happen in a world without advertising is COMPETITION via value for money.

Prices would fall because there would be no rediculous overheads trying to gain market share with brainwashing.

Profits would rise by selling things at competitive prices and increasing productivity, thus benefitting everyone.

Let's face it, how much more "whiter than white " can washing powders get? We don't need to be told lies every 10 minutes.

Advertisement is the industry that fills your brain with empty promises, that wants you to believe that you're never complete, that there's always one more fragment of yourself that you have to acquire through monetary means, that there's a place somewhere in the future where you will be happy by showing you images of people who are apparently happy. But if you can't be happy just here and now you'll never be happy, if you believe you're not complete here and now you will always feel fragmented..

Or how about honest advertising required by law?

Taken to the extreme, and keeping in mind your ideas of black & white signage, I suppose this would look something like the movie They Live, after he puts on the special sunglasses.

By the way, for fans of that movie, the book Twilight Eyes is somewhat similar. I read it when I was about 10 or 11.

originally posted by: nerbot

originally posted by: thekaboose
Companies would open and fail, people would be jobless as they would be restricted to their home town looking for job as there is no chance of expansion of business (no adverts for jobs). No point in making new things for people to enjoy as due to lack of advertising you would be again restricted to local trade keeping costs up.

You seem to have missed the real upside here....the most powerful thing that would happen in a world without advertising is COMPETITION via value for money.

Prices would fall because there would be no rediculous overheads trying to gain market share with brainwashing.

Profits would rise by selling things at competitive prices and increasing productivity, thus benefitting everyone.

Let's face it, how much more "whiter than white " can washing powders get? We don't need to be told lies every 10 minutes.

Not really, I have pointed out that with no advertising what so ever, yes there would not be any competition. There is also no way to get your product out there on the mass market. Yes everyone has the same footing but it means that nothing AMAZING would ever come to light, or if it did you would never know about it.

Again, without advertising, sales would stay steady. Profits would stay the same so no more money to produce better products. Costs would stay the same due to not having to produce MORE units which means you wouldnt order MORE parts in the hope for future sales or expanding because you cant get your message out there saying YOURS is the BEST. Lets face it, a boost in sales = bulk buy more parts bringing the cost of production down, bringing the cost of the item down.

Keep sales at 100 units a week = Costs never change
Advertise, sales jump to 1000 units a week and increase due to advertising your product = Costs drop due to demand and discounts on bulk buys.

Im sorry if some people cant understand the market, but advertising has always been a thing. From shouting in a market in early cities to Barry Scott appearing on your screen shouting Cilit Bang. Without shouting about your product people wont know it exists meaning your company will fail, meaning people lose there jobs.