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Comment by prmoustache | Hacker News Reader

> The gas pumps that play advertisements while your car fills are incredibly obnoxious and makes me regret being a customer.

Deface them. This is legitimate defense.

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I wouldn't deface them, but I keep a couple mutetheads[0] stickers in my glovebox. Perhaps I can share the "secret mute" button with the next person.

[0] MuteTheAds.com

If this is real, this might be the most helpful thing I learn all day. Thanks stranger

> "secret mute" button

This trick stopped working at all of the gas stations I frequent, sometime within the last year or so.

All at approximately the same time, multiple brands. Or at least multiple signages, not sure I could attest to big oil corporate structure consolidations!

I assume it was a software update from the pump/ad network vendor, possibly in reaction to the secret getting out.

So, thanks. :)

Are the speaker grilles easily accessible? I wonder if a quick jab of a pocket knife to wreck the speaker would fix it in a way that absolutely no one will be upset by.

A knife cut to the speaker diaphragm probably would just make the audio harsh and possibly (perceptually) louder. I've repaired speakers in similar conditions before. A complete girdling of the diaphragm is probably tricky to do through the speaker grille.

My suggestion would be to spray expanding polyurethane foam (e.g. Great Stuff) into the grille. Immobilize the diaphragm, and muffle anything that's left.

But, vandalism is bad. Even when it is justified retaliation. :-/

Destroying someone else's property is seldom the answer.

If nothing else it'll keep your lawyer with food on his table.

You can deface them nondestructively. Just tape a piece of paper over them.

it is in this case though, if they're too expensive to maintain they'll stop installing them

It is so commonly the answer languages acquired the specific word "sabotage" to describe it.

It is so commonly we also have the word "murder" to describe murder.

Does it make murder right? Certainly not.

In the past I’ve used a flipper zero to lower the displayed price of gas on their signage and then file a complaint with the department of weights and measures. One gas station was closed for repeated violations.

No, this is how frustrated children solve their problems. Please don't recommend it.

You haven't provided a better solution.

Why would I need to provide a better solution to property damage? It should be obvious, vote with your dollar, don't pump gas there.

> Why would I need to provide a better solution to property damage?

Because you want others to believe that that is a bad solution. If its the only available effective solution then it isn't bad.

> It should be obvious, vote with your dollar, don't pump gas there.

How many gas station chains do you have to choose from near you and what makes you think that the others won't just put on the same annoying ads? Voting with your wallet is meaningless for issues where most people will begrudingly put up with something because there are only so many options and there are more important differences to them (mostly price).

The "only effective solution" for gas station ads? There is no counter point to incredible statement.

At some point property damage really is self defense if said property is actively engaging in what amounts to assault. And vote-with-your-dollar is silly advice when we cannot assume there are available alternatives, and when the "disruptors" and "marketing wizards" involved with this crap are explicitly reaching for captive-audiences, do not provide volume controls or off buttons, etc. Sometimes the gas station ads start up blaring noise after you've already paid, so you can't tell when you're going to get hit with them. And good luck finding a taxi or an airline without a screen blasting at you, effectively further monetizing people even though they are already paying for a service. Even first-class passengers everywhere are subjected at minimum to a litany of "join our miles club" crap every time they fly. If passengers aren't force-fed this stuff on the screen in front of them, it will be on the PA system, which really ought to be reserved for actual information/emergencies and not used as part of "captive audience" shenanigans to improve someone's margins. This behavior is sickening and should really be illegal. Since it's not illegal to engage in assault-through-advertising though, property damage starts to look like the only way for consumers to speak a language that corporations understand, i.e. by affecting bottom-lines and margins.

How would you go about solving this problem then?

What problem, annoying ads playing at a gas station? Gee I don't know, maybe not pump at gas station chains that use ads? Even as annoying as they might be, I can hold in my inner angst to deface property for the 4mins it takes to pump up my car.

Boycotts don't work and it's hopelessly idealistic to think they do.

What happens if you boycott your closest petrol station, spend extra cash, time and CO2 to reach the next closest one? You've penalised yourself, and the environment.

You may or may not convince other people to do the same, but the drop in revenue may not be noticed, or not get attributed correctly, or might be more than offset by the extra revenue from the adverts.

Meanwhile the replacement place that you're using notices that people seem to be tolerating the annoying adverts so they decide to do the same.

Direct action is likely to be more effective.

But if all gas stations do this, what is the solution? You're admonishing someone for proposing a solution that you consider unacceptable, but you're not providing any alternative solutions.

What is the solution to the problem?

Every now and again, children have a way of cutting through the pretense and conceit of a problem let to fester far too long under some assumed adult guise of "civility".

Channel the inner 5 year old. It's the only way to be sure.

I live somewhere that a person pumps my gas for me. No ads!

But think of the lost economic efficiency!

Don't give them any ideas, or you'll have gas station attendants decked out in ads like NASCAR drivers.

Or just upselling the whole time...

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