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I know Banksy’s art is corny but I’ll post the quote for anyone who hasn’t seen it:
"People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.
Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.
You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs."
I actually wouldn’t mind ads if they helped spread valuable information. Like where to find resources. Community events that create lasting relationships with your comrades. Unfortunately all of it is just to get me to buy some shit I don’t need and make me feel like a loser if I can’t afford it or alienated if I don’t want any of it or gatekeeping for those who don’t want it or can’t afford it. And then because our brains aren’t as complex as we think it easily works, so you buy the shit, don’t feel better, alienate yourself from others and then buy some more shit and gatekeep those who don’t have similar shit.
Even worse, now ads agencies have realized people don’t like this constantly being told to buy their shit. So it’s some moral message wrapped in their logo. Which is even more infuriating because they are telling your brain that this company has good morals even when you know they don’t. I.e Exxon spending more money on ads telling you they’re doing research on renewable resources than they spend on the research. And the money they do spend on the research is to shut it down.
Just the other day my mom said “what about doing advertising for amazon.” hahaha can you imagine?
What you’re talking about aren’t really ads because they’re not trying to sell you anything. That’s just a flyer with information.
I’ve been blocking ads and pirating media since 2003 and I just about have a stroke when I use someone else’s internet browser.
I use the typical AdBlock Plus, and uBlock for Chrome - any other suggestions?
It’s worse than propaganda. It’s propaganda you increasingly feel obligated to watch so the dude repairing old watches on youtube can pay for his cancer treatments.
I’ve managed to construct a life for my kids where advertising is largely absent from their lives. Their minds were blown the first time they saw a toy commercial.
Try to do the same too as much as possible. No live TV… whenever they see an ad on YouTube or something they skip it ASAP… they’re pretty young, so glad they’ve already shunned advertising.
I genuinely find it difficult to read anything on the internet now. Effort posts here and the occasional PDF of an academic paper are more engrossing and informative and easy to read than any major newspaper or blog site. And when that’s the case you know they’ve done fucked up.
That’s why wikipedia is so popular. Wanna find out what movies are coming out this year? I use wikipedia. Games? Wikipedia. A Discography? Wikipedia. News on the Pandemic? Wikipedia is got my back.
