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Comment by Joeri | Hacker News Reader

Are there even that many “normal” ads? When I tally up all the ads for scams, and the ads for games that in turn are funded by ads, and the ads for the things I just looked at and decided not to buy, I get a sneaking suspicion the online ad business itself is a scam.

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There are all kind of ads I would be interested in: good clothing, good tools, good software, good food. Or for things that are useful but you never would have thought to use them. I can do without the gazillion different brands selling the same foam mattress and ads for products that I just bought.

Well good products don't need very much advertising.

Coke? Nike? Disney movies? Apple products?

Are these examples of good products or are you making some other point?

Yes, these are examples of good products that are among the world's largest advertisers.

Counterpoint: Trader Joe’s, Costco and Tesla.

Companies that do zero advertising and are largely considered excellent brands.

No counterpoint is needed, since I was not arguing that all good brands advertise, merely that some do. :)

I use an ad blocker, so I don't know about online ads. But I haven't seen ads on mainstream TV for any of those things in a very long time.

I don't know anything about you, but I still know that you have seen some kind of Coke advertisement in the last year, whether it's a billboard, product placement, the logo on a fountain fountain machine, etc. My point was that "good products don't need very much advertising" is obviously false, since some of the world's best products advertise.

I don't remember if I've seen a coke ad in the last year but I'm pretty sure I bought at least 100 litres of it.

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