Hacker News Reader

Comment by zulban | Hacker News Reader

"just show me stuff that reflects what I value."

Ads don't show you what you value. They show you what companies think you will waste your money on. You need to wake up, my friend.

View on HN

I don't really see much ads tbh. Brave blocks most of online crap and other stuff I guess my brain just learned to tune out because it is not valuable. That's my whole point -- I think the ever increasing ad spend and ever decreasing RoAS will (hopefully) yield some platforms to do a bit better job. Maybe OpenAI be one of them. Maybe not.

Consumers have agency. The best ad placement for a company is to a consumer who wants what they’re selling. It’s a symbiotic relationship.

I think it's easy to lie to consumers. Then, how much agency do they have?

Seriously? 99% of the ads are trying to sell stuff you dont need at all. But they want to sell that to you. Why would you rely on an ad to realize what you NEED and then buy it?

People don’t only buy what they NEED?

The best ad placement for a consumer is one for the best product of the sort they want.

Taking money to decide which of the options to show is in conflict with the goal of showing the most appropriate.

Ads are often misleading though. You know, it "looks bigger in the picture" type of thing. If ads were honest, the hose hideaway my wife just ordered would have said "flimsy piece of plastic shit you will throw away after a year, but should get you through the summer".

it turns out "consumer agency" is ineffective and that people are actually very susceptible to having thoughts beamed into their heads

How do you know that only a consumer that wants what an advertiser is selling would receive an ad for that product?

Certainly we know the inverse, what of it?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com