zlacker

> * Total fantasy to think you wouldn't fall afoul of free speech, both legally (in the US) and morally.

Some limits exist on advertising exist in most countries. Do they respect free speech?

> * Absolutely zero thought has been given to how to police the boundaries. Giving a paid speech? Free gifts for influencers? Rewards for signing up a friend?

Absolutely zero thought is never given on policing boundaries on anything. That's not how the legal system operates. All laws are approximations at best and grey areas get decided by courts on a case-by-case basis.

> * Products need marketing. You don't just magically know what to buy. Advertising fulfils an important social role. Yes, I know it can be annoying/intrusive/creepy. "In our information-saturated world, ads manipulate, but they don't inform" is an evidence-free assertion.

In my country, advertising alcohol is forbidden. Somehow I still manage to find interesting new beers to try year after year

>>vjk800+(OP)
> In my country, advertising alcohol is forbidden. Somehow I still manage to find interesting new beers to try year after year

This is interesting. Alcohol companies a well known to bypass this prohibition by all possible means (product placement, influencers,...) and yet I find real benefits in it. It would possibly be similar if advertising was forbidden for everything

>>sdefra+nm
They probably do some sort of promotion targeted to the retailers. I don't know and don't really even care. All I know is that I don't see any beer ads on TV, outside, or anywhere else really, and I wouldn't mind if the same was true for everything.

>>vjk800+Dc1
Yep. Same goes for drugs in France. Advertising to the general pumicbis forbidden but you still find ads in press targeted to GPs.

Still, I believe we are better off like this than if those ads were allowed everywhere.