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Comment by omginternets | Hacker News Reader

I occasionally tear down ads in public spaces. I'm sure many will disagree with me, but I do think we should be able to move through public spaces without the incessant assault on one's attention and head space. I haven't been caught yet, though I'm sure I someday will, at which point I'll pay the fine and keep doing it anyway.

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I find highway billboards and store signage to be a particularly awful display, and I'd be overjoyed for them to be banned entirely. I have often thought about cutting down highway billboards, although I'm not quite intense enough for that.

Quite.

Also, here in the US, gas stations have begun to play particularly loud/obnoxious video advertisements at the pump. I cannot stress how angry I am about this. One of the last places where I could just day-dream has now been deemed "up for grabs" by the lowest form of shit-peddler in the modern world.

Pause for a second to consider the absurdity of being blasted with advertisements while paying for a product. Talk about double-dipping...

Suggestions welcome.

There is a mute button, sometimes labelled, sometimes hidden, but try pressing them all.

Doesn't help much, but helps a little.

And then stick some unapproved sticker on the pump of your choosing.

The stickers are a good idea. I also wonder if there's a discrete way of permanently damaging a speaker, e.g. with a magnet or something that could fit discretely in the palm of one's hand.

stab them with car keys.

Cameras, my friend. It's going to have to be much more discrete.

Also, they're way ahead of us. They've got those monitors and speakers covered with thick plastic.

gas stations have begun to play particularly loud/obnoxious video advertisements at the pump

Just one more of the many reasons to drive electric. It's when I make the rare drive to a gas station in the ol' fossil burner that I'm reminded of what shit holes some gas stations have become. Half the pumps don't work, the card readers are full of skimmers, but by golly the video and audio work!

> Just one more of the many reasons to drive electric

Oh yeah, just wait until your charging station installs ads. Then you're stuck watching an ad while your vehicle charges. That, of course, takes longer than inserting fuel into a tank. So more advertisements and more money for the charger!

I'll then have pretty good standing to ask how they got into my garage in the first place. :)

I don't know how that's going to work given that the charging station in my garage doesn't even connect to a network.

Beside, if you're talking about public charging stations, it's already been done (can't remember the name at the moment). The difference between those chargers and a gas station is, you charge for free (Level 2, though). It's odd, too, because the ones I've seen are at grocery stores. So, plug in, go into the store...when am I supposed to see the ads?

Your car connects to the network.

...and then what? And remember that in your (very) hypothetical situation, I'm asleep while the car is charging.

Electric charging takes long enough that you don’t want to stick around, right? No captive audience for this type of ad.

Don’t worry, I’m sure Elon will find a way to integrate those charging networks with the screens inside his cars to show you ads there too. What’s better than showing ads on a small screen at a gas station? Showing ads on a big screen inside an electric car that charges for 5x as long!

I promise you, this is coming to charge stations too.

Not my charging station. That would be a neat trick.

Audio ads playing at gas pumps is now the only factor that determines which gas station I go to.

> Suggestions welcome.

So when I was a child, laser tag became a thing you could buy. Little kits that came with 2 or 4 sets of vests and guns that tried to simulate experiences like Q-Zar laser tag, but at home for kids.

We had a couple of sets, and one of the frustrating aspects was that firing the guns made a lot of noise - they had little speakers built in that played really, genuinely awful laser noises for about 5 seconds every time you pulled the trigger.

But... as curious kids, we found out that slipping a butter knife between the plastic grill over the speaker on the gun and giving the speaker membrane a good slashing solves the problem real quick. The speaker might vibrate, but without a membrane, no real noise is going to be made.

So I guess what I'm saying is that it would be a real shame if folks just slipped a pocket knife through the grill on those gas station pump speakers every now and then.

Sounds like we had a similar childhood!

More to the point: this is a good idea. I have half a mind to grab a razor blade and fill up my tank...

Buy an electric vehicle. No kidding, avoiding the pump (and paying the petroleum industry tax) was my #1 goal (not saving money - I live in CA where kWh prices are very high).

And I can't express how much I love not feeling anxious every time I drive by a gas station to worry "do I need to fill up now"?

Filling up at home every single day is much more serene. We also have a 2nd vehicle that's non-EV for trips.

try the button one down from the top on the right side

It has worked for me.

Where I read about it: https://www.thedrive.com/guides-and-gear/how-to-mute-gas-sta...

I've got good news for you!

Currently, four states—Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine—have prohibited billboards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard

That is excellent news. I wonder what it would take to propose this in Massachusetts.

I think either MA must have some laws limiting the density of billboards and their content? We definitely haven’t gotten rid of them enough, but it is not as bad as the stuff you get outside of New England.

Many cities and counties have already rolled something out, which would be where you start. Once there's not that many billboards in total, a state-wide ban becomes more acceptable.

This is the amusing hobby of some of the characters in Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang.

I imagine there's at minimum 120 volt lines going through those posts, and worse case 240 volt. Cut at your own risk (but I support the sentiment)

Good for you.

I was walking my dog in my local forest and came across a newly installed bench for sitting. On it was a shiny brass plaque: “This bench is sponsored by [insurance company]”, along with a phone number. I went straight home and returned with a screwdriver. I posted the plaque to the insurance company.

I totally agree with you and I do the same. High five! Recently I've learned that most posters being hung in public space are illegal anyway (at least in Poland). I've heard it from... An outdoor advertising company employee.

I agree with you aesthetically, though if it was a privately-owned, publicly-accessible space, I wouldn't go as far as to commit vandalism, as bad as it may look. (If it was placed by a member of the public without consent of the owner I'd agree with taking it down.)

That said, I've been waiting for a good set of widely popular AR glasses to come out so I can write a real-life ad blocker for them.

>I agree with you aesthetically, though if the ad was placed by the owner of the space I wouldn't go as far as to commit vandalism. (If it was placed by a member of the public without consent of the owner I'd agree with taking it down

I get what you're saying, but I'm sort of beyond this now. The invasion of personal space has reached a point where I'm prepared to fight dirty, too.

Here's a novel idea: advertisers might put a modicum of care into selecting the time, place, and manner in which to present products to the world.

> Here's a novel idea: advertisers might put a modicum of care into selecting the time, place, and manner in which to present products to the world.

Yeah I totally agree. Bombarding peoples' senses isn't even effective advertising, IMO. They can do better.

Here's another novel idea: How about make products actually good, and let third parties review them? Most of the time I choose products based on reviews, not ads. If I'm in the market for something I probably will watch reviews about the various choices.

That could be really interesting. Layer some art over it?

I wonder how hard it would be to distinguish between various things while driving. Billboards are mostly useless. Traffic signs of course can’t be covered up. Then in between we have cases like signs for gas stations and fast food (which are technically ads I guess but they are actually useful).

Of course this is for version 2.

Traffic signs and signs for gas stations and fast food are largely standard (color/fonts/symbols/etc.), they can be easily recognized as such by a neural net and whitelisted.

That said, when I'm a pedestrian, I wouldn't mind traffic signs being covered up as well. They completely destroy the look of the surrounding architecture and flora, but I understand they are a necessity for the cars. As a pedestrian I don't really care what the speed limit is.

Yeah, on foot seems like a much more forgiving and useful environment in the first place.

> I've been waiting for a good set of widely popular AR glasses to come out so I can write a real-life ad blocker for them.

So, even They Live is prophecy now?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live

I 100% agree, and I'd welcome regulation to tone it down. Most of the time it's just obnoxious, and the worst of it is that it's effective - which is why the market won't solve it.

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