If people do not know about the goods and services you offer, they will not buy them. Multinationals are known, and will have the resources to get around any ban on advertising. The little guy will be almost completely out of luck.
To provide a bit of just how difficult banning advertising would be:
Some possibilities include positioning of products in a store,product placements in movies, or sponsoring charities or sports events.
A second, related problem is that it will hurt the ability of people to run their daily lives. If you need to find an apartment for rent - it will be much more difficult without advertising. We are for Justice and Mercy, and Truth and Peace, and true Freedom. Edward Burroughs 1659
Finding solutions to problems people were not aware of is sometimes simply progress. No one missed the walkman before it existed, but once there it clearly had a useful role.
This is a high price to pay for an end to the consumer society.
There are other consequences of banning advertising. Just how much control over your life are you willing to give the state?
Yes, in the core, advertisement is simply a good thing,
No - making fundamental changes to society is not something that should be undertaken lightly - based on some sort of feel good left-wing position. This is doubly true when attempting to graft political ideas from one system onto a radically different system. We need to understand what the consequences of our actions will be in the real world - all the consequences.
What is needed is not the banning of advertising, but a complete overhaul of for whom does the government operate. We are for Justice and Mercy, and Truth and Peace, and true Freedom. Edward Burroughs 1659
I think we may agree on the problems of banning advertising. I would not go so far as to think that advertising as it currently exists is basically a good thing. We are for Justice and Mercy, and Truth and Peace, and true Freedom. Edward Burroughs 1659
I think television advertisement is a very specific, and relatively harmful version of advertisement. It's not informative, expensive and broadcast, meaning it hits everyone, including lots of people outside their targets
On of the problems of banning advertising is that it will hurt the small guy more than the big multinational.
Huh? Why?
What's happening now is that multinationals have a near-monopoly in media space. When was the last time you saw a TV ad for your area sustainable energy company?
edwin:
Multinationals are known, and will have the resources to get around any ban on advertising.
You can ban their get-around efforts too.
The problem isn't advertising - toxic as it - so much as:
The update has some potential problems listed with the proposal. At this time I do not have much to add to the update.
Your proposal of a very significant media tax balanced with breaks for the little guys is moving in the direction that I like. My preference instead of a media tax is higher progressive taxes on profits (and "double" taxation is ok by me) - taxes on usage of natural resources - including land use for building factories etc on, and taxes on pollution. And I want a strict prohibition of political funding from corporations along with strong limits as to the size of cash donations that can be made to political parties. I am also interested in some form of media breaks for the little guys as well.
When it comes to banning work arounds - it is much easier said than done. We are for Justice and Mercy, and Truth and Peace, and true Freedom. Edward Burroughs 1659
