this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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They call it "dark traffic" - ads that are not seen by tech-savvy users who have excellent ad blockers.

Not surprised that its growing. The web is unusable without an ad blocker and its only getting worse, and will continue to get worse every month.

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[–] nonentity@sh.itjust.works 96 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Advertising needs to become as socially acceptable as smoking.

It arbitrary pollutes any environment it’s conducted in, and causes secondary harms to non-participants by incentivising insecure hoarding of private information with the intent to better target individuals.

[–] demunted@lemmy.ml 34 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Agreed left unchecked it is horrible, on of the darkest pervasive elements of capitalism, used in a manipulative manner. We've reached astounding understanding of human psyche and are using that knowledge with advertising to control people's subconscious. It's disgusting.

[–] Ecen@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

While I definitely agree that most advertising these days is terrible, I do wonder how it should be done. How would you market a product you made? I genuinely want to know what you find acceptable.

Say that you invent a new type of ladder that is much more stable than normal ones, or maybe you start 3D printing a very cool figurine that you've designed. In either case, you realize you have a product that some people will probably want to buy, if only they knew about it.

You probably won't go to an ad network, I wouldn't. But do you make a post about it on Lemmy? That's advertising. Do you tell your friends about it? Most of them probably don't need a ladder, but maybe a couple would buy your figurine, though that is unlikely to be enough to kickstart your 3D design company.

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Reminds me of the bill hicks quote on advertising.

[–] nonentity@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

The sentiment is influenced by many.

[–] RedPandaRaider@feddit.org 0 points 1 day ago

I'm sorry to tell you but smoking is completely socially accepted.