I want to get as far away from the ad economy and ad culture as possible. Since there’s a 0% chance the morons supporting it will ever learn from their mistakes, I’m starting to realize the only option going forward is to create new places where we aren’t stuck with the “tunnel vision of the stupids.”
It doesn’t have to be large, start small and work our way out. It also doesn’t have to be expensive. It shouldn’t be too difficult to enforce a ban on physical advertisements within the borders, but digital advertising is a whole 'nother ballgame.
Even for a small town, would it be possible to sue companies for running ads in it? Similar to how the same company will show different content on their web services depending on where the user connects from to adhere to local laws. It would be fine if they just blocked connections from where advertising is illegal, but it’s not okay for them to show ads to our residents.
Any insight into this besides useful idiots saying advertising is good or necessary would be greatly appreciated!
Within the US, the states of Maine, Vermont, Alaska & Hawaii all have a ban billboards. The general logic behind it is, “They ugly, nature pretty.” So as long as you live somewhere where “nature pretty” fits, you can probably argue based on that logic.
However no matter how far you stretch that argument, it probably only goes as far as public goods. Once we get into private business I don’t think you’ll have much luck.
As you walk into your nearest grocery store the outside might be covered in ads. Buy Pepsi. Buy Coke. Half off generic cola!
You pop into your local diner and the placemats have advertisements for a dozen local mechanics.
Private businesses have regulations on their ads all the time. Cities across the country regulate how large shop ads can be.
Oh absolutely. There are laws the restrict cigarette advertising as an example.
I just doubt you could 100% eliminate/make illegal all types of advertising for private business.
There’s also a commercial logic and interest to that, maintaining the brand of the state as a tourist destination, where unmarred natural beauty is seen as an economic commons, and the lack of billboards being something that people may be indirectly willing to pay for. Pictures of the state that do not feature billboards are themselves advertisements for its local businesses.
You have people who find ads annoying in themselves and would have a positive attitude towards some ban or another, but these people aren’t especially organized or informed about it. It’s only actually getting done when this aligns with economic actors who stand to benefit, and probably inevitable that whatever shape an advertising ban takes will have been crafted with the advancement of some particular business interest in mind.