I'd first ask what is advertising a direct response to? And what was eliminating advertising a direct response to?
For the former, I believe the first ad was placed in like the 1700s. Wait... I'll Google it... the first newspaper ad was placed in 1704 by a seller in Oyster Bay who wanted a buyer for their estate. (Thanks to AdAge for that one: http://adage.com/century/timeline/index.html)
So, I'd say that advertising is a form of getting the word out about something, when you know that someone might need it, but you're not exactly who specifically.
Then eliminating advertising would be getting rid of it because too many people were trying to get the word out, so much so that the channels for even knowing what was relevant to the receiver were saturated beyond belief.
I'd say get rid of the profit incentive, not the advertising. If there's no profit incentive for advertising, but instead direct communal bartering gain, then fewer people would advertise. The adverts you would see would be direct needs targeted to direct people who needed that stuff.
This reminds me of Craig's List. I used to love Craig's List because it was so much about community, and people sharing their needs and or looking to fill others' needs. However, when the traffic grew, the profit incentive grew, now Craig's List is over saturated. Way, way over saturated. That's why I'm now a member of Quentin's Friends. I pay $15 bucks a quarter for access to a community of people where there's minimal profit incentive driven advertising and posting, and more communal driven exchanges.
That's a good question.
I'd first ask what is advertising a direct response to? And what was eliminating advertising a direct response to?
For the former, I believe the first ad was placed in like the 1700s. Wait... I'll Google it... the first newspaper ad was placed in 1704 by a seller in Oyster Bay who wanted a buyer for their estate. (Thanks to AdAge for that one: http://adage.com/century/timeline/index.html)
So, I'd say that advertising is a form of getting the word out about something, when you know that someone might need it, but you're not exactly who specifically.
Then eliminating advertising would be getting rid of it because too many people were trying to get the word out, so much so that the channels for even knowing what was relevant to the receiver were saturated beyond belief.
I'd say get rid of the profit incentive, not the advertising. If there's no profit incentive for advertising, but instead direct communal bartering gain, then fewer people would advertise. The adverts you would see would be direct needs targeted to direct people who needed that stuff.
This reminds me of Craig's List. I used to love Craig's List because it was so much about community, and people sharing their needs and or looking to fill others' needs. However, when the traffic grew, the profit incentive grew, now Craig's List is over saturated. Way, way over saturated. That's why I'm now a member of Quentin's Friends. I pay $15 bucks a quarter for access to a community of people where there's minimal profit incentive driven advertising and posting, and more communal driven exchanges.