Advertising and paid promotion in any form has never been ok. It has always been a cancer on society. That is what happens when you ignore a mild symptom until it metastasizes into something horrible. We need to ban it completely.
Generally, how can society discover new products and services?
I would be open to having some kind of directory that i could browse at my own convenience, but that's ultimately going to devolve to paid placement.
I'm surprised you can't imagine a society where the consumer would be the one recommending products and not the producer. Any entrepreneur can find one first consumer to test their new product. And that first consumer have access to a great communication network to recommend that products to their social network — it's called "the Internet". Social networks are a great platform for people to share interesting things to their friends, family, colleagues and also to people they don't actually know ("the Internet" can connect you to strangers). Such networks cost little to operate when the content is created by users, instead of producers and their intermediaries (people favors short, insightful written text instead of catchy commercial once detoxed).
Being born in the 1990s, I did experience that "Internet", when advertising networks didn't exist and when people intentionally interacted to make connections and actively look for information. They were happy to tell about things they discovered, with little to expect in return ("influencer", aka mercenary, wasn't a job yet).
What a myopic view. Also, the world is very much filled with shades of gray. I’m certain this dichotomy is indeed a false one.
I want to learn about products that are useful to me, but not through ads. As it turns out, it is incredibly difficult to learn about new products that are useful, as those do not tend to show up in ads at all and even seeking them out is very difficult.
It's weird how no one has come together to make a website specifically designed around users finding product categories that will make their life better. For example, I didn't learn about height adjustable desks from an ad. Nor did I learn about balance boards from an ad. Or trackballs. Or essentially every other product that made my life better once I realized that product category exists.
Yes, and those people are free to visit equivalent of mail order catalog or go to the store or subscribe to consumer goods quality testing journal or to any of the enthusiast magazines about electronics or gardening or whatever where they perform independent testing and benchmarking or look up a video comparing ceiling fans across a century when they feel hot in the summer.
So yes, we should absolutely ban third party advertisements. People will still be able to discover good products.
Maybe I'm just not a typical person, but I have never woken up in the morning and said to myself, "You know, I would just love for a corporation to help me learn about their new products and services today." Never. Not even once. When I want to learn about something, I will actively seek information out about it, and I'm not going to look to advertisements for impartial information. The purpose of advertising is never to inform. It's to bombard and saturate.
We also cant get rid of cancer, it doesnt mean we shoudl close down all hospitals.