Brave: Brendan Eich's clean-ads browser startup

Re:Brave: Brendan Eich's clean-ads browser startup by brador on Wednesday January 20, 2016 @01:38PM (#10940283)

> And it's also not cynical to say that those extra sales would not have occurred without the ad, hence they were for goods people could have done without

Here's the error.

Yes, they were products the target could have done without, but not something they can do without once they have the product.

Consider: The first iPhone. A device that opens possibilities to improve your life that never existed before. You could do without it, but once you have it you can't do without it.

I think you'd have appreciated an ad for the original iPhone if it eventually led to you buying one.

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Re:Brave: Brendan Eich's clean-ads browser startup by Joeri on Wednesday January 20, 2016 @03:13PM (#10940981)

You're confusing need with want. Nobody needs an iPhone, not even after they get one. Plenty of people want an iPhone. To be fair, the statement "advertising makes you want what you don't need" is not a value judgment on whether that is a good or bad thing. It could be that advertising is beneficial to the world. It just seems unlikely.

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