> Even if we did restrict advertising through laws, it would be a race to see who could advertise “legally” first, and thus suddenly capture everyone’s attention.
This would still resolve all of the issues caused by the current model of advertising, so I think it's worth it. Sure, it may make business more difficult, but so do the various safety regulations we already have; being in business is not a right and if your business can't be sustained without heavy advertising (which has negative externalities) then maybe it shouldn't exist?
Let’s say we got strict on the “phone book” idea: that advertising was only allowed on your own storefront and in a central directory. My point is not about whether businesses should survive (that’s a whole other topic), but more that that businesses would start to try to exploit those two avenues. For example:
- Buy the largest storefront in the most visible area, even if all you have is one product
- Create a shell company that creates directories, position it as “the best directory for <your industry>”, charge bleeding-high prices then give yourself adspace for pennies
- Good old fashion bribery: pay the lawmakers 10mil to put in a clause so that you’re allowed to advertise “in the header of your own site”, then buy a bunch of industry sites
Keep in mind that any solution has to understand that at the top of the heap there are companies making millions of dollars per month, and who are willing to spend whatever it takes to keep the revenue high
This would still resolve all of the issues caused by the current model of advertising, so I think it's worth it. Sure, it may make business more difficult, but so do the various safety regulations we already have; being in business is not a right and if your business can't be sustained without heavy advertising (which has negative externalities) then maybe it shouldn't exist?