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Comment by chambo622 | Hacker News Reader

Strange but accurate analogy

Advertising _is_ strange.

I'm trying to do a thing and you've put this colorful flashy box in front of it.

Imagine if people tried to "monetize" their conversations. They might claim that otherwise they couldn't afford to talk to anyone (rent ain't gonna pay itself, right).

You'd be talking about football or whatever and suddenly a different tone of voice would emanate from your conversational partner for 10 seconds whilst they talk about some Super New Product.

As far as I can tell the whole industry is impolite, rude, gauche, just a bit icky, really.

Advertising makes me angry.

I live in a city that has a characteristic mountain. So, naturally, advertisers are placing their towering billboards so that they constantly block the view when you're driving on the avenue that would have the best unimpeded line of sight.

I think that I shall never see / A billboard lovely as a tree. / Perhaps unless the billboards fall / I'll never see a tree at all. -- Ogden Nash

Whenever advertising makes me angry, I think of all the free things I wouldn't have without it.

What free things wouldn't you have without it?

What do you think the cost would be for these free things without advertising?

The biggest downside I can think of is while I would happily pay for Google search (per search, subscription, whatever) in an ad free world, there's lots of people who simply wouldn't bother to search and learn new things.

Really though I think they have a good model for their search page, it's unobtrusive and not rude, and it made them the most powerful tech company in silicon valley, so clearly it works. Wonder why other adtechs had to get so much shittier about it.

Like? You can't really know that you wouldn't have open source, p2p versions of the things you use today that you assume can only exist because of advertising.

Of course I can't prove what may or may not happen.

I just know that I do in fact have these things today because of advertising.

Do you mean like, t-shirts and mugs you've gotten from promotions?

I suspect they meant Gmail and suchlike.

But free tshirts are pretty nifty.

Like Facebook?

On certain forums that allow signatures people are putting links to their companies/projects or affiliate links, etc. This disrupts the flow of conversation in pretty much the way you describe.

It was (maybe still is) particularly annoying on Bitcoin forums for example, where signatures can contain images.

> Imagine if people tried to "monetize" their conversations.

People do try to monetize their conversations. That's why "networking" is a different word than "socializing".

That's also why it's relegated to special events and occasions, like professional conferences. If you try to "network" when normal "socialization" is called for, you'll be seen as tactless or sleazy.

This holds true for a lot of things related to sales & advertising - if you tried to repeat the same practices in person to your family or friend, you'd get distaste or a punch in the face.

The behavior isn't different in terms of what you do. The name is different according to your goal when you do it.

Only in the sense that both involve talking and smiling. The goal is different, and that goal is shared by all parties involved. If a situation calls for one goal, but you decide to pursue another (networking on a social event, socializing on a networking event), there's a mismatch that makes people uncomfortable.

A french Telco provider tried this once. You could get free calls from your mobile but had to listen to an ad before being connected. It didn't last long.

Financial advisors, insurance agents, lawyers, and all sorts of white-collar professionals are expected to sell their firm’s services through their own networks. Of course, human salesmen are paid more for tact, class, and effectiveness that for raw impression count.

Financial advisors maybe, but that's precisely the reason I quickly concluded "financial advisors" for individuals are just a scam for pushing unneeded financial products. Other white-collar professions? How to imagine this happening outside networking events, aka. mutually-understood time for professionals to advertise themselves to each other.

I see it a lot. "Oh, your an accountant! Let's chat later I have some questions about XYZ". Those with less tact will ask then and there usually with a response to meet them at the office next week.

I'm surprised this was not an episode of black mirror, sounds crazy ...but that's just me in 2018 thinking that

Agreed, and the reason advertising is so pervasive literally stepping between us and anything we consume is that markets are saturated with products: too many products compared to potential customers, so that they have to fight to get the first spot between us and their competitors. People don't look for a product anymore, it's the other way around, and it's not going to stop unless we focus on the real problem which is not advertising but the monster giving it full control: ie our flawed economic system.

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