Well, for once - maybe making more informed decission when buying stuff (starting with "do I even need that" instead of emotional impulse buying becasue hot chick/guy told them to)
Can you show your product in a trade magazine? Can you list your business in a phone book?
I guess anything that's invides my brain without my consent (so all billboards, bus-stop LEDs, etc) is annoying ads.
Now, if you see a product ad in a magazine related to the filed that makes more sense (and I'd love to go back to the internet where ads were based on page context and not user tracking data btw)
Consent is interesting framing due to it's interactions with public commons and shared spaces.
Does one give consent by entering the common space? How much consent does one give by entering the common space?
My opinion is that public spaces can have rules, and you consent to anything that falls within those rules by entering them. For example, Everyone is consenting to billboard because they choose to drive on the highway instead of staying home. The way to withdraw consent is to change the rules, and can not be done unilaterally.
I think this framework can also explain the difference between a magazine, which is essentially a private space. You consent to the rules of the magazine when you choose to open and read it.
I think it would be pretty bogus if I published S1artibartfasts newsletter to my subscribers, and some third party thought they had the right to ban me placing ads because they didnt consent.
The internet is an interesting mixture of these different spaces. Google serach results make sense as a private space, so they can show as many ads as they want. nobody is forced to go to google.com.
A webpage is clearly private, but is the world wide web a public or private commons? that I am less sure about.
Interesting take. Though the thing is - the balance of power in this public, shared space is highly tilted (I have loads of money and therefore can dump crap everywhere). As seen everywhere people _DO_ prefer clean public space without noise and ads but pushing such laws is difficult... because of lobbyist with track loads of cash…
I dont really buy that. People have all of the power, and all the control the space. The real barrier in my mind is voter apathy and indifference.
Switzerland has a politically engaged population and strong referendum system. People vote like 5-6 times a year referendums on issues exactly like this
Quite often the apathy is a direct result of years of historical events where voting doesn't change anything i.e. not living in proper democracy or if so, the process tilted in a way than the vote is often wasted (for example relatively high election threshold) or often citizen initiatives (gather x thousands signatures) being voted down by the current government...
Unfortunately making vote obligatory would not "fix" the problem as coertion to vote would make people even more annoyed and they would vote out of spite…
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On the other hand, money can influence people into voting certain way even if it's not in their best interest (good example is Brexit vote…)