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Comment by bryanrasmussen | Hacker News Reader

imagine an advertisement so effective that anyone who saw it would immediately buy the product at whatever price asked as long as they could afford it.

Imagining this we can see that there is obviously some limit beyond which advertising must be curbed, and admitting this the question just becomes at what point must advertising actually be curbed?

Of course one could argue that such an advertisement must be for a product so wonderful and useful that everyone would want it - let us say immortality with youth and good looks - but if that were the case such a product should be recommended enough by word of mouth and the evidence of all the old people becoming young and good looking when taking it.

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The closest thing is probably a very charming, attractive/successful person soliciting you in person, at a place where you're open to buying that product (let's say a mall, or specialty store) or are a captive audience. Maybe we should ban the way luxury brands are sold, or military recruitment at high schools.

why limit to advertisement, it can also be used to manipulate you into voting for certain person or proposition that may not be in your best interest. Emerging technologies like AR, VR, Brain Computer Interface are ready for someone to abuse them.

If your assumption is that people are helpless to resist persuasion, then who is this incorruptible entity who will protect us from having to make our own choices?

the assumption is that there is some point where people need to be protected, the scenario I envisage is a point where it is extremely obvious because if there was an advertisement that could cause you to automatically buy it people would need to be protected or the company with the advertised product would soon have all the money and all their customers would end up enslaved to it. The question of course is if there are any less extreme scenarios where people need to be protected.

But I think the real question that needs asking here Winston, is when are you going to just give up and love Big Brother?

You're using the passive voice, "people must be protected", which calls for action without considering whether the cure might be worse than the disease.

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