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A comment on International coalition calls for action against surveillance-based advertising. Parent comment

Re:International coalition calls for action against surveill... by FredPret on Thursday June 24, 2021 @05:15PM (#27623866)
No, it’s not zero sum. There’s now a better solution where customers are more optimally served by a new product than before. Let’s call the increase in value of this new solution X.

Money was spent on ads to make it happen. Call it Y.

If X > Y, value was added. If not, then new company C eats the difference and loses money and/or goes bankrupt.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:International coalition calls for action against surveill... by endisneigh on Thursday June 24, 2021 @06:27PM (#27624685)
No, I’m talking about the advertising dollars. You’re taking about something else. Ultimately the amount of attention at any given moment is fixed yet the amount of money that be spent pursuing such attention is unlimited.

Just because money being spent has a positive ROI doesn’t mean advertisements are not zero sum.

By your logic ads can be a disruptive experience and hence negative sum. In fact I’d be surprised if isn’t the case. Most people find ads to be annoying.

[ Parent | on HN ]