A World Without Advetising

It's true that 90% of advertsing out there is pretty annoying. Some of it may be interesting, interesting enough for people like me to want to make a career out of it, but the truth is, it is going to be a long time before ads are as interesting and useful as something like this:

Amnesty International Gun Ad

But this is most likely because Europeans are miles ahead of us in terms of what makes good advertising.

Either way, I was trawling around Wikipedia the other day and I came across this article about a world without advertising:

"Public interest groups and free thinkers are increasingly suggesting that access to the mental space targeted by advertisers should be taxed, in that at the present moment that space is being freely taken advantage of by advertisers with no compensation paid to the members of the public who are thus being intruded upon. This kind of tax would be a Pigovian tax in that it would act to reduce what is now increasingly seen as a public nuisance. Efforts to that end are gathering momentum, with Arkansas and Maine considering bills to implement such taxation. Florida enacted such a tax in 1987 but was forced to repeal it after six months, as a result of a concerted effort by national commercial interests, which withdrew planned conventions, causing major losses to the tourism industry, and cancelled advertising, causing a loss of 12 million dollars to the broadcast industry alone."

So when you are relaxing in your living room tonight and watching the Olympics, just remember, none of this would be possible without billions of dollars in advertising revenue.