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Life without advertising

bilby

bilby

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I don't totally despise advertising. Businesses arguably need to get customers. But I am sick and tired of the sheer amount of it. Behind it all is the great big consumerist lie that more stuff (often stuff you don't need) makes you happier, and most advertising is in fact designed to make you less happy.

So I applaud this too, just for making a point. Most people are willing victims when it comes to advertising, and this sort of thing might make people think.
 
Why?

a) it would look amazing

b) it’s exhausting being asked to buy stuff all the time

Wouldn’t it be great not to worry about the holiday we can’t afford, the car we don’t need, or the body we don’t have? Imagine a world where public spaces made you feel good.
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That's a pretty good sales pitch in itself.
 
That's how life is in the DPRK, basically. And I don't mean that to disparage the idea of doing it here, I mean it because the DPRK is good. It's like life with Adblock enabled, and instead of looking at ads you have murals of flowers and revolutionary propaganda. I would make that trade in a heartbeat.

EDIT: In case it isn't clear, DPRK = the Democratic People's Republic of Korea = "North" Korea = Good Korea
 
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ruby sparks said:
I don't totally despise advertising. Businesses arguably need to get customers. But I am sick and tired of the sheer amount of it. Behind it all is the great big consumerist lie that more stuff (often stuff you don't need) makes you happier, and most advertising is in fact designed to make you less happy.
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Indeed. Businesses need to get customers, but they don't need constant access to their potential customers.

I recently read a copywriting book that gave a six-stage process for writing sales materials:
Step 1: Tell the reader they have a problem.
Step 2: Amplify the reader's anxiety about that problem.
Steps 3-6: (Basically) Exploit that anxiety

In many cases, it's in the best interests of the consumer to let go of their anxiety and be happy with what they've got, but there's no money to be made from enlightened consumers.
 
Giant pictures of cats staring at me from every angle would drive me batty. I can easily ignore advertising posters as long as they each differ enough to just become a blur. The ads that I can't take anymore are the ones on TV. I never watch them since I got the cable DVR. You can't as easily ignore video or audio messaging designed to capture your attention. And when the scene changes on average every 2 seconds it has to effect one's ability to focus attention.
 
PyramidHead said:
That's how life is in the DPRK, basically. And I don't mean that to disparage the idea of doing it here, I mean it because the DPRK is good. It's like life with Adblock enabled, and instead of looking at ads you have murals of flowers and revolutionary propaganda. I would make that trade in a heartbeat.

EDIT: In case it isn't clear, DPRK = the Democratic People's Republic of Korea = "North" Korea = Good Korea
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I don't think they're eating much steak in "good" korea.
 
Treedbear said:
PyramidHead said:
That's how life is in the DPRK, basically. And I don't mean that to disparage the idea of doing it here, I mean it because the DPRK is good. It's like life with Adblock enabled, and instead of looking at ads you have murals of flowers and revolutionary propaganda. I would make that trade in a heartbeat.

EDIT: In case it isn't clear, DPRK = the Democratic People's Republic of Korea = "North" Korea = Good Korea
Click to expand...

I don't think they're eating much steak in "good" korea.
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Bulgogi is a pretty popular dish there, but like all Asian nations Korea is generally very heavy on the carbs.
 
Are you advocating North Korea as a more desirable society than a 'western' one, and partly because of the prevalence of political propaganda images?

Ok. Looks like I underestimated you.
 
ruby sparks said:
Are you advocating North Korea as a more desirable society than a 'western' one, and partly because of the prevalence of political propaganda images?

Ok. Looks like I underestimated you.
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Depends on what you mean by desirable. It's just very different from Western society, but not in the sense of being an authoritarian hellhole run by a crazy dictator. The truth is, as usual, less sensational and more nuanced when the history and culture of the region are taken into account. The DPRK is a nation with many facets and opinions. The people living there are individuals with ideas and beliefs of their own. They are not brainwashed automatons with no grasp of the outside world.

What has been found in the DPRK based on the reports of visitors who aren't deliberately planted to spread false information is that life there is pretty good, for the most part. There is zero homelessness, ample public services of all kinds, robust community participation, and a strong sense of pride for national solidarity. This makes sense in light of their emergence from Japanese rule and American opportunism. From the perspective of an outsider, what looks like conformity and lack of individuality is just people not expressing themselves through the accumulation of commodities. And yes, one manifestation of this is their lack of advertisement.
 
Get suckers to fund putting up advertising for our overlords? Well done!
 
PyramidHead said:
That's how life is in the DPRK, basically. And I don't mean that to disparage the idea of doing it here, I mean it because the DPRK is good. It's like life with Adblock enabled...
Click to expand...
It's like life with a browser that can't render HTML.

EDIT: In case it isn't clear, DPRK = the Democratic People's Republic of Korea = "North" Korea = Good Korea
Click to expand...
If anyone hears screaming, it's PH, because he's dangling from the far left edge of the political spectrum.
 
Jimmy Higgins said:
PyramidHead said:
That's how life is in the DPRK, basically. And I don't mean that to disparage the idea of doing it here, I mean it because the DPRK is good. It's like life with Adblock enabled...
Click to expand...
It's like life with a browser that can't render HTML.

EDIT: In case it isn't clear, DPRK = the Democratic People's Republic of Korea = "North" Korea = Good Korea
Click to expand...
If anyone hears screaming, it's PH, because he's dangling from the far left edge of the political spectrum.
Click to expand...

Nah, I can't stand anarchists
 
This is not a thread about the DPRK.

It's about living without advertising in London, and, by extension, the western developed world, where it is currently endemic.

It's absolutely not a thread about left vs right politics - there's an entire cesspool called "Political Discussions" for that shit.
 
Treedbear said:
Giant pictures of cats staring at me from every angle would drive me batty. I can easily ignore advertising posters as long as they each differ enough to just become a blur. The ads that I can't take anymore are the ones on TV. I never watch them since I got the cable DVR. You can't as easily ignore video or audio messaging designed to capture your attention. And when the scene changes on average every 2 seconds it has to effect one's ability to focus attention.
Click to expand...

What I noticed in London was a series of the same three or four ads repeated. I would definitely prefer pictures of cats or scenery to advertisements.
 
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