Hacker News Reader

Comment by bityard | Hacker News Reader

You are deliberately confusing ads with things that already have better names, such as notices or listings. They feel different because they ARE different.

Advertising is wildly successful because it's literally everywhere and we are conditioned from birth that the whole concept of "strangers using psychological tricks so you give them your money" is just a normal fact of everyday life. Most people are NOT conditioned to be on-guard against ads, and that is the whole problem. It's not until you make the choice to actively avoid ads where possible and give up ad-laden media consumption altogether for a while that you notice how bad (and bad for you) advertising is.

If you haven't tried switching to a low-advertising diet, you are probably missing out on the ability to focus on what really matters in life.

View on HN

I am taking a broader definition of ad to include things that also have other names.

- job ads and classified ads that can also be called listings

- ads for events that can also be called notices

- product description on services like Amazon and Ebay

- websites describing products and services

- 1st hand and 2nd hand mentions of products and services online that can be as close to the

Some of the comments here seem to hold only for a narrow definition of ads.

I prefer to think of all of this as marketing, as ads are part of the marketing mix. As we see, the distinction between ads and other similar things is blurry.

I am not defending the volume of ads. There's way too much of it. I am making the unconventional and unpopular statement that sometimes marketing and ads do deliver value.

It's better to narrow the critique of ads the way you did because that leads to a more constructive conversation.

A huge distinguishing characteristic is that some of these things come to you, or are found passively, and some of them you seek out. I think that when the ad comes to you, there is a very good chance it has little or no value.

Job listings are useful, but I have to seek them out.

An event calendar is something I seek out.

Product descriptions are only shown to me when I seek details about the product.

An ad on the street is somewhere in the middle. For most people the acceptability of it is about setting (not in a nature park, please), and ignorability (LCD billboard vs. telephone pole flyer).

I think that is the distinction that people are making between marketing and what is being called ads.

I think you hit the nail on the head - people tend to think of push (outbound) marketing as "ads" while they don't think as much about passive ads.

It's true that it's harder to do push / outbound marketing in a way that does not feel annoying. I've seen it done and it seemed like the company was reading my mind in a good constructive way. That's rare though.

It can definitely be done in a way that people don’t mind/accept.

People love movie trailers to the point of seeking out good ones and sharing them. People have come to accept that broadcast media will have ads, but get very annoyed when ads are inserted where they are not expected (ads during an ad break are ok, sports betting ads mid play annoy the shit out of me).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com