Isn't ads exactly the opposite. A big company could preserve its brand even without ads, while a small company can't build a brand without ads.
But I completely agree on removing wall ads. Its ugly.
Plenty of businesses would die without ads, they would be naturally selected out of people lives because without the brain washing, they are just not that important enough.
Well, you at least levelled one of the playing fields (while also removing a huge eyesore, which I really like!). I think the business deals in the background play a very large role too, if not bigger than the advertisements themselves. By business deals I mean that many restaurants exclusively serve the coke or pepsi family of drinks. This won't change if we remove the ads, only strengthen, and the larger players have a bigger weight, so the field is still very tilted.
That plenty of businesses would die without ads, I completely agree. There's an entire business model of running a bunch of ads, selling a bunch of crap, then disappearing. I would say good riddance to these.
But most businesses are not niche, that's why it's called a niche.
People sell food, clothes, accommodations, services.
You can't fight wall-mart on general food or nike on shoes, or any big player on phones.
If you create a new tech product, your only chance is to go reddit, HN, etc, like the pine phone. Because you can't advertise it like apple with the iphone.
You can't buy product placement in movies and video games, you can't be at every bus stop.
So sure, if you sell biodegradable bamboo socks, your ads can do something.
But that's not 99% of what are sold in the world.
What is really sold is transparent to people, because they are so used to it. They don't realize they have maybe 3 choices of providers because all those brands belong to the same big super company. And each of them have their own dedicated marketing department.