Nicholas Roope on advertising vs. things.
Tech Liberation Front says:
Ethicists could debate until the cows come home whether ad-blocking (or ad-ignoring) is morally tantamount to shoplifting—taking without “paying” (through attention)—but who cares? Whatever the morality of it, the important, and undeniable, thing is that those who ignore/block commercials are free-riding on the economic value created by those who don’t.
Maybe so, but I think this is indicative of the fact that this type of advertising just doesn’t work. If you have to force someone to give their ‘attention’ to advertising, how receptive do you think they are going to be to the message? Not very. Sure, some might get implanted just by virtue of critical mass- seeing enough commercials for Geico might lead one to think of them as the only insurance provider out there. But for the most part, I think people already assume that advertising that wraps television and movies is untrustworthy and a nuisance to be avoided. Forcing people’s attention only feeds into that resentment.
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