Do we need ads?
We have grown so accustomed to ads that it’s very hard for us to imagine a world without them.
Considering myself a libertarian, I feel obligated to concede businesses their right to advertise their products as much as they want. If you have a great product, why shouldn’t you be allowed to get the word out?
On the other hand, there is something about the advertising landscape we are currently immersed in that is deeply disturbing. Immersion feels like the right word because ads are constant distractions that we are often no longer aware of.
Ads change our thoughts making it hard to stay centered and in touch with what we actually need in a given moment. They create a need where there wasn’t one previously. Some will argue that’s how capitalism works and that economic growth relies on this mechanism.
How then do we get out of this conundrum? Maybe by choosing the premium over the advertising version or maybe by doubling down on our own centredness, by transcending an advertiser’s ability to divert us from what we’re actually. supposed. to be doing.
