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Re:French cities trying to ban public adverts by TeMPOraL on Tuesday December 24, 2019 @04:59PM (#21875189)
> Informative ads, like a new movie being out in theaters, can actually be net-positive financially, at the expense of the strain on public attention.

It would be easy to avoid that strain, by segregating such informative ads into places where people can seek them out on their own. Have advertising be PULL, not PUSH. Unfortunately, this is the exact opposite of what the advertising industry wants (and really, what most companies want - everyone is happy with getting a little short-term advantage at the expense of everyone else and their own future).

Re:French cities trying to ban public adverts by cm2012 on Tuesday December 24, 2019 @05:31PM (#21875381)
So more or less enforcing the status quo. If you can't do push marketing, whatever people are used to will stay for much, much longer.
Re:French cities trying to ban public adverts by andrepd on Tuesday December 24, 2019 @09:21PM (#21876299)
False premise, even more in the age of the internet. If you want to know what's the best x, where x is a phone, a flashlight, a toaster, then you can just google it anytime. In fact, it's very much the opposite: advertising enforces the status quo, since the biggest companies will be able to promote their product at a massive scale (bombardment is a better word) and monopolize attention. Small businesses get squat.
Re:French cities trying to ban public adverts by TeMPOraL on Tuesday December 24, 2019 @05:44PM (#21875441)
But that's not a problem, IMO. If something was good enough before, it's likely good enough still. If it stops being good enough, people will be prompted to look for alternatives, which they'll then discover. Given how it's nearly impossible to satisfy human beings, they'll start looking for options sooner rather than later.