I’d love to see a quantification of the negative externalities of advertising that incorporates a high value of attention, and then tax unavoidable public advertising to cover that externality. I’m by far the most concerned with things like billboards and park bench ads, which are designed to eye-catching and literally can’t be avoided without giving up wide swathes of life. Things like TV ads are much more opt-in, so while we maybe should tax those more heavily, it feels much less urgent to me.
The downside of this is that it’s essentially taxing speech, which is such an incredibly slippery slope that I think I might be against the whole thing. I feel like we ought to be able to tax eyecatching public displays in particular, but maybe that ends up being a tax on beauty which also seems bad.
Ideally, an open public debate on (A) the extent to which we allow money to determine the strength of voices in a community, and that advertising is one of these voices with as much cultural and political baggage as, say, a local political party; (B) adverts are becoming increasingly effective using micro-targeting, and will only become more so; and thus (C) we need to consider more limits on where and when adverts can be shown.
Pragmatically, more restrictions on online adverts and adverts in public spaces would be a start, in terms of size, spending, and possibly developing categories of adverts depending on their source (multinational versus local business). Perhaps certain areas could be zoned to allow greater advertising, such as shopping districts, where the individuals in them likely want to see adverts. Overall, a greater ability to ‘opt-in’ to advertising should a person want to.
The counterargument that this would decrease consumption on the basis people would not know what there is to buy is probably true and a real tradeoff. Without advertising we lose the opportunity to stimulate consumer desires beyond what they would be otherwise, slowing down the market.
What would you like to see?
I’d love to see a quantification of the negative externalities of advertising that incorporates a high value of attention, and then tax unavoidable public advertising to cover that externality. I’m by far the most concerned with things like billboards and park bench ads, which are designed to eye-catching and literally can’t be avoided without giving up wide swathes of life. Things like TV ads are much more opt-in, so while we maybe should tax those more heavily, it feels much less urgent to me.
The downside of this is that it’s essentially taxing speech, which is such an incredibly slippery slope that I think I might be against the whole thing. I feel like we ought to be able to tax eyecatching public displays in particular, but maybe that ends up being a tax on beauty which also seems bad.
Ideally, an open public debate on (A) the extent to which we allow money to determine the strength of voices in a community, and that advertising is one of these voices with as much cultural and political baggage as, say, a local political party; (B) adverts are becoming increasingly effective using micro-targeting, and will only become more so; and thus (C) we need to consider more limits on where and when adverts can be shown.
Pragmatically, more restrictions on online adverts and adverts in public spaces would be a start, in terms of size, spending, and possibly developing categories of adverts depending on their source (multinational versus local business). Perhaps certain areas could be zoned to allow greater advertising, such as shopping districts, where the individuals in them likely want to see adverts. Overall, a greater ability to ‘opt-in’ to advertising should a person want to.
The counterargument that this would decrease consumption on the basis people would not know what there is to buy is probably true and a real tradeoff. Without advertising we lose the opportunity to stimulate consumer desires beyond what they would be otherwise, slowing down the market.