A world without advertising/marketing
 

Do you think the world would be a better place without marketing and advertising. On one hand, good and reputable (sp?) products and services get known of so people can use them etc for some benefits. Probably more things as well, but i gotta go to basketball game shortly :p
i guess there goes a shit load of jobs though....

anyway, on the other hand, a large part of the "social programming" is removed (probably for the better, i think), in that it tells us how we should look, feel, act and so on
Kinda feels like the world in geroge orwells 1984 (on a smaller scale), where you couldn't really think for yourself, which isn't healthy.
probably more things as well.....

your thoughts?

marketing and advertising has been around since the first man attempted to trade whatever it was he had for something he needed. whats the difference between a commercial on your tv and a mesopotamian farmer shouting his wares out in the marketplace. without marketing/advertising, nobody would trade anything. we'd all be forced into the lives of subsistance farmers and foragers, surviving but never thriving, because we all depend on other people for a service or skill to further our own cause.

I agree; I go to the local farmer's market a lot, and the inheritors of that Mesopotamian farmer are out there hustling, shouting, and pushing free samples all day. Marketing at its finest.

I see the real issue as this: mass media is a medium for advertising, because it is advertising that pays for the "free" programming. I guess the real question is, wouldn't it be nice to have advertiser-free media. The answer is, yes; but _somebody_ would have to pay for it. In England, every TV owner kicks over a couple of hundred bucks every couple of years (my figures are foggy) to pay for the commercial-free BBC. We'd have to have something like that, or true pay-on-demand broadcasting on a show-by-show basis. And I'm not even covering what would have to happen to remove ads from the print media, etc.

I don't see advertising and marketing as inherently evil, but in our consumer society they're almost the tail that wags the dog now.

no it wouldn't be better. It creates jobs, money and is very much needed.

nope, we need it ... :crazy:

Marketing and advertising pre-date humanity: pheromones, battles during mating season or to establish 'pecking order', and ritual mating displays are all examples of marketing and advertising.

As has been said; it's been around forever.

Because of that, I'd be REAL worried to see it all disappear. That, more than anything, would be a sign that they had figured out how to make it TOTALLY subliminal.

advertising is going to become ridiculous in the future... instead of my beloved steelers logo on the side of their helmet, we might see Pepsi or yahoo.com

its all about money... if a big company like that says ill pay you 100 million dollars to display our logo, most wont turn that down
we live in a world that revolves around money

now a world without pop-up ads... that would be somethin'

pop-up ads? WTF are pop up ads!? :D

/Mozilla user.

We could live without it. Hell, we got by without if for thousands of years.

sorry for going off-topic, but Macheath: your avatar is the best thing ever. ever.

I concur with many here that while of some concern, ads in mass media are here to stay, and nothing can change that.

these cultural expressions of the human capacity to exaggerate, mis-represent in the interest of self-promotion and self-interest, lie, etc. are basic aspects of what it is to be human.

we have the personal responsibility to educate ourselves and the social responsibility to make the results of our education public knowledge, as possible...that is, we have these responsibilities if we choose them.

It isn't the marketers and advertisers that are the problem, it is bad parenting, lowering of the bar, catering to stupid people, all this feel good bullshit, all this political bullshit, all these people not buying clothing but a lifestyle (what bullshit), and a number of other things. Kill the problem not a good result merely perverted.

i think it would be very different, but still very similar in ways; marketing and advertising are a necessity in a society like ours. I would very much like to see what that world would be like.

rather than having no adverting i think they would have something completely different. some way to get new products known, more like a reference of new products maybe in the newspaper.

i think the best thing that would come from it, after thinking for a bit, would possibly be that everything would be of the greatest quality and would most definitely meet the demands and requirements of all users.

To put it simply, everything would be better.