Re:French cities trying to ban public adverts
by msla on Tuesday December 24, 2019 @06:32PM
(#21875647)
> Direct mail, storefront displays, in-store advertising, et cetera are still permitted.
Direct mail is the worst form of advertising, from a personal perspective and from an environmental perspective. You're littering directly onto others, and forcing them to deal with trash you created in the vain hope that some of them decide to act on that trash.
It all ought to be marked "Return To Sender" and placed back into the mail stream, so the original sender has to deal with disposal. Forcing entities to internalize negative externalities is the only way to stop them from creating those externalities to begin with.
Some argue all advertising should be banned. If that were to occur, the search burden would shift to consumers. We'd subscribe to curators like the Consumer Report or Wirecutter, storekeepers, et cetera and let them do the searching on our behalf.
This article considers something weaker. No public advertising. No billboards. Direct mail, storefront displays, in-store advertising, et cetera are still permitted.