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I kinda like the idea of advertisers using my information to show me highly targeted ads. I'd love a world where every ad I saw was something I wanted or needed in my life, and where advertisers didn't have to waste money showing me things I'll never get.

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Aella

@Aella_Girl

I also fantasize about a totally perfect utopia in which my behavior is predictable, so that ads are *only* ever shown to me when they are actually relevant. Maybe I'd only see 5 ads a day on the internet, and those ads would be wonderful and useful for me.

8:23 PM · Jun 28, 2019

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Also a great way to do this is via friend referrals - the incentives are aligned

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I wonder if my info would indicate that I truly want to see no ads. Or would such a utopia presuppose that everyone can be shown something that will have positive emotional resonance at a given moment and serves that up, instead?

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The slippery slope is companies making you buy products you don’t actually want or need, but that your primal brain wants

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Well, I think problem is that ads won't show you things that you want or need. Most likely it will use information for persuading you that you "want" some things, that you actually don't and if advertisers have enough information they can convince you to buy almost anything.

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This sounds truly as a liberal dream....

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I've read that "behavioral targeting" in advertisement is aiming for this same thing. A decent portion of ad space online is still pay per click right now and advertisers want the best bang ("turn over") for that buck.

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I think that conflicts with the purpose of a lot of corporate advertising. like, the polar bear coke ads aren’t trying to really get you to buy a product directly, just strengthen your association between wanting a cold drink and wanting coke.

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I've been tinkering with a startup idea to do exactly this. Most people don't like ads because they're a) intrusive and b) irrelevant. If you could just tell advertisers your specific, chosen demographics & product interests, they could show you relevant, friendly deals. Win/win.

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Worst take. Cultural homogeneity is worth the banality and irrelevance in that it binds us together in opposition to idiot marketing execs.