Once again thinking about how advertising shifted from a small group of selected individuals who would rate, approve, and distribute a limited number advertisements on TV, radio and in print and how the modern "anyone can make an advertisement for anything and put it anywhere" completely destroyed the market.
In theory advertisements aren't bad. I mean there are still a great number of people who loudly and proudly declare they only watch the Super Bowl because marketing agencies spend big bucks on funny, interesting advertisements. There were scenarios where advertisements were acceptable and even enjoyable!
But not anymore. Since a person can register for Google Adsense and slap as many ads on a thing as they want to, the more desperate and sleazy among us decided to fill entire pages with ads. The value of a single advertisement bottomed out, as instead of guaranteeing a viewer's undivided attention, websites started being lit up like the Las Vegas strip. Memorable ads suddenly matter less than whatever's the most simple and flashy.
The side effect, the thing that I'm actually thinking about today, is how little advertising matters to me now. The only ads that ever actually command a single iota of my attention are the most annoying things: websites with "sign up for our mailing list!" pop-ups, or when I go dumpster diving on my Roku and find a streaming app that plays ads every 90 seconds, or when a news website is covered in "SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PREMIUM SERVICE" banners in every corner (or limits how much you can read before paying).
The only ads I remember are the ones that feel like a punishment.
To the point where, on a website that actually tries to show an acceptable number of advertisements, my brain has been automatically trained to ignore them. I don't even see them. I was using the tumblr app five minutes ago on my phone and I can't tell you what the ads were. I salted the earth for those neurons in my brain. That kind of mental spite is a reflex for me now. The rest of the internet has made me so resistant to all forms of the most annoying, forceful, attention-grabbing advertising that it will probably never work on me ever again for as long as I live.
But I can still recite the Toys'R'Us song by heart. It's been more than twenty years since its debut and people still remember the McDonalds "I'm Lovin' It" jingle.
...Actually, I'm so inoculated to modern advertising I had to double check whether or not McDonalds even still uses "I'm Lovin' It" because I cannot remember having seen a McDonalds advertisement in a very long time.
I suppose my ultimate point in all of this is never feel obligated to watch ads. Never feel guilty for using an adblocker. When that website says "We noticed you're blocking our ads, please turn it off" there is no law that says you have to (if they try to force you, a quick google search will probably solve that).
Always remember you are the victim of their circumstance, not the other way around.
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