Ads are not something that benefits me, the Ad viewer. I do not want to spend time training your marketing department. Your product is not entitled to my eyeballs. I will (personally) always strive to ignore your existence and minimize your advertising's impact on any of my decisions because your marketing department does not have my best interests at heart.

Advertisements were something we grudgingly accepted for reduced service costs, IMO they have reduced their own value so far that the quantity we are expected to consume is ridiculous. I would really appreciate the whole industry getting regulated out of existence.

So I realize that this is going to be an unpopular opinion but I'm going to go out on a limb and hope for the best.

I have a small business, and it's a business that people love.

When I first opened my business I was getting almost no customers because I had no way of informing people about my business.

With advertising, I'm getting clients and my business is doing well. I don't use manipulative tactics or remarketing, but I do use targeted ads to find out what kind of people are looking for my services and market to them by including a short direct blurb about what I do.

As a result, people who need my services can get it at a price they can afford. Another happy result of advertising is I am able to have my own business and bring greater competition to a market place that is dominated by old boys type businesses. The only down side is that some people who didn't want to see a blurb had to see it.

Why is this bad?

Maybe manipulative advertising tactics are bad, maybe advertising that relies on building brand recognition rather than stating value is bad. But I really don't understand why paying to inform people that my business exists and tell them what I do is a bad thing. I think it's a great thing.

I can say this, without modern affordable advertising my business wouldn't exist. Not because I don't provide value, not because there are better more competitive businesses but because people would have no way of finding out that I exist. I don't have the money for a fancy storefront with a fancy sign. I don't have the money to be at the front of the yellow pages. I don't have the age and established connections to get people through referral. All I have is a good idea, and the only way to communicate that idea to the public is advertising.

Maybe there is bad advertising and abuses of advertising. But please let's think twice before throwing out the baby with the bath water.

There was that famous study by Lee Benham who found that eye glasses were 20% cheaper in places that allowed for advertising. I don't know how much we can generalize that finding but I do think that a strong argument can be made that information is big component of the competitive marketplace. Meaning basically I have to be able to inform people about my product. If only huge businesses that can advertise on TV or get sports endorsements or have politicians or celebrities mention them have the capacity to inform people about their products, then they will dominate the market. Internet marketing is the great equalizer that gives little guys like me a chance.

Instead of unsolicited ads why would it not work with targeting people actively looking for things only?

Right now I’m researching a product I’m about to buy, because I have an actual need. In the process I consult various sources listing and comparing products of that category. Allthough most of those sources can’t be trusted to provide unbiased information, I’m pretty confident the sum will give me a pretty good overview of the search space.

Well that isn't going to happen, because most people don't feel that way.

I disagree that every single entity that has a product they want me to know about doesn't have my best interests at heart. At the very least, my interests are aligned with companies that produce things that bring me value. In what sense does a company that produces that the skateboard wheels that go on my daughter's skateboard and my skateboard not have my interests at heart? The existence of that product (and the other necessary parts) brings the two us immense joy, disproportionate with the $20 a set they cost.

I also don't really wish for the web sites that put ads on them to either go out of business or put up a paywall or something.

I do, however support the idea of there being an easy way for you to pay a fair and reasonable subscription fee to see sites ad free. It would be great if all the biggest advertising companies (Google, Amazon, etc) came up with a plan for that, and individual web sites didn't have to deal with it beyond what they already do to show the ads.

In the world we live in we have imperfect knowledge of the market, this is pretty much innate to having a world as big as ours is - thus for some purchases less money/effort/neosheckles could be potentially expended if you put some of that money into discovering a better deal. Part of what marketing does is to absorb that cost - were you paying 179.99$/mo to get cable so you can watch TV? Well, Netflix wants you to know that for just a fraction of that cost they can make your TV work as well.

This portion of marketing is the portion I feel sad for because this is where people who are trying to (actually) offload excess inventory or to unseat an entrenched business fall. I object less (personally) to marketing that is trying to provide information, BUT, this sort of marketing can be passive - if you are selling a new type of device to clean carpets that is going to obsolete the vacuum cleaner, set up a website for anyone interested in cleaning products.

Most advertising isn't of this sort and is instead trying to shift your decision making. If you really want good wheels for your daughter's skateboard does the fact that some crazy cartoon tiger thinks they're grrreat make them better wheels? Would you prefer to just have access to real information on the different wheels available to compare them by quality and price?

This is a very difficult thing to solve because imparting knowledge neutrally is either impossible or something that we in the modern world have entirely unlearned, but I do believe the majority of customers do feel this way - we'd prefer to have access to that information when we want it and we'd really hope that it's being processed by a neutral third party that can cut all the BS out of the pitch.

"If you really want good wheels for your daughter's skateboard does the fact that some crazy cartoon tiger thinks they're grrreat make them better wheels?"

No, I haven't seen a crazy cartoon tiger used to advertise skateboard wheels. I just saw amazon ads on web pages, showing the wheels.

I don't agree with all marketing tactics and I doubt many do. But I don't see the world in black and white. I see the benefits of having online companies that I can order from, and the benefits of having a way for web sites that provide useful services to make some revenue without requiring subscription plans.

As I said, though, I think people like you who hate ads but who wants those services (I assume you use some free web sites that aren't Hacker News) should be able to subscribe easily to something that lets you opt out of ads. I even could support legislation that requires companies that advertise and track people across sites to offer such plans for a fee that approximates what they'd make by showing you ads.

This is a cynical take and sadly one I'd mostly agree with. Google results seem to be getting worse and tending more towards clickbait material when I'm trying to search for a good comparison and/or review, which is really a shame.