At its core, advertising can be useful and beneficial to society. But surely we can agree that companies like Coca-Cola don't need the same advertising space as small businesses fighting for visibility. If this seems like reasonable common ground, great! If not, we may simply have different views, and that's okay. I'd still welcome your thoughts.
Not every issue has a single and simple answer. Differing opinions are part of the conversation.
The Problem with Advertising Today
The core issue with advertising as it stands is that it rarely serves mutual benefit, especially when it involves high-impact advertising spaces. Think about the types of ads you typically see in these spaces: they're almost always for the world's most profitable and well-known brands. These companies don't need the extra visibility, yet their advertisements dominate, often in ways that feel intrusive and oppressive.
This constant bombardment of ads from mega corporations has also created a backlash against advertising in general. This backlash negatively affects smaller businesses trying to reach potential customers, where due to the behaviour of mega-corporiations people now often resent ads on sight, lumping these in with the cognitive load of redundant information that they have learned to associate advertisment in general with. This creates a barrier for small businesses that are simply trying to gain visibility but are forced to compete with the massive advertising presence of corporations.
This has negative economic impact for everyone involved.
A New Approach to Advertising
My proposed solution is straightforward: we rethink how we allocate advertising space. Right now, high-value advertising spots are wasted on corporations that already have an overwhelming presence. Instead, by connecting advertising spaces with businesses based on the value these provide to people, we can improve the social impact advertising in general has. Advertising spaces will, of course, not like such changes since this will undoubtedly impact their revenue, however we should always choose humanity over a single persons income, and when we fail to make this choice we have lost our way.
Advertising companies like Google, a company once celebrated for its focus on search, have accumulated vast knowledge about user needs and interests. This knowledge should be the foundation of a new advertising model. Imagine we combine metrics like demand for a service, business age, and customer feedback to create a more equitable system. The idea is to preferentially give advertising space to newer buisnesses, for which there is a demand, accounting for customer feedback.
This way, advertising space could be allotted to businesses that actually need visibility, which people would appreciate being visible, rather than everyone being forced to look at content put out by those who can simply outbid others.
Under this model, a business that receives an advertising spot could still sell it to larger corporations, like Coca-Cola, if it deems the compensation more valuable than the exposure. However, ideally, this space could also be used for co-promotions. Such co-promotions would be smaller business getting visibility alongside the larger brand in a mutually beneficial arrangement, allowing the smaller buinesses to focus on producing quality products or providing quality services while large advertising companies like coca-cola, mcdonalds, etc. can continue wrecking our visual environment, albeit now with a marginally improved benfit to society.
The Benefits of Value-Based Advertising
The benefits of this system are twofold. First, society would see ads that are generally more relevant and useful, since they come from businesses we might not already know about but could benefit from discovering. Second, small businesses would get the support and visibility they need to stand out and grow, leveling the playing field in a landscape currently dominated by mega-corporations.
Why This Approach Makes Sense
If people aren't allowed to paint their houses however they like because it might be considered an eyesore, why should we be subjected to advertisements that are, arguably, much more intrusive than any overgrown garden or brightly painted home? Advertising could be so much more than it is now, connecting us to meaningful new products and services instead of overwhelming us with things we already know all too well.
By rethinking how advertising space is allocated, we can create a system where advertising serves as a genuine, constructive part of society rather than an unavoidable nuisance. We can, and arguably should, move towards advertising that truly meets it's intended purpose of benefiting both businesses and the communities they're trying to reach.