> ...They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers...
> ...You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.
This is fair. Both sides of the debate have made this ideological.
The pro advertising side make it sound like it is your capitalist duty to suffer ads.
No. Fuck that, I block annoyances in my life if I can. And I still buy crap don't worry.
Is a catalogue? Yes, I would say so, however it's a fundamentally less offensive, less coercive, format than billboards. I am not made to suffer the contents of a catalogue unless I opt into it. I would only open a catalogue if I've already decided that I want to see what it contains, probably because I want to purchase something that it may contain.
Shops are similar to this, I don't enter a shop unless I've decided to purchase something I believe they might have. One difference is the amount of signage outside the shop, which assaults me whether or not I've decided to enter the shop. (The cover of a catalogue arguably does the same, but is much smaller and that's an important difference.) Thankfully many municipalities have taken a stand against this and have begun regulating commercial signage, if only to preserve the local aesthetic / property values.
Consider the difference between Victoria and Vegas. Both have no shortage of commercial zoning. One is delightful, the other is an blight. A monument to just how bad things can be when we allow commercial interests to run rampant. Cynical, exploitative, and ugly.
So if i want to build a shop with a self contained (non structural or otherwise regulated) frontage of my own design, you think you should have a say over that?
> ...They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers...
> ...You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.
Full quote here: https://trickygirl.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/quote-of-the-day...