I have never seen an ad in the past 6 years. I use android phone, windows PC and Android TV. Keen to hear when was the last time you saw an AD ?

YⓄ乙 @aussie.zone to Technology@lemmy.world – 91 points –
84

Today. The entire city is filled with billboards and posters.

I really wish billboards were illegal

In some cities they are, and it's a beautiful thing. An example is Canberra, Australia.

I live near Seattle Washington and there are very few here. Pretty much only on Indian Reservations. But last summer I was on a road trip that took me through Salt Lake City Utah and there were SO MANY BILLBOARDS along the interstate there. I can’t believe the people put up with it.

There are godamne billbords there especialy past the airport and on bus stops etc

Wow I did not notice that this was the case. Gotta appreciate this a bit the next time I visit.

I moved from somewhere with billboards all over the place to somewhere signs over 6 feet tall are illegal

It’s breathtakingly nicer

They can be a bit too much, but thanks to a billboard I found out that one of my favorite bands (Morcheeba) are playing in my city.

Time for AR where you can replace all those puplic ads with, umm, nsfw art, for example.

Yea I meant on your personal device like phones , PC etc

No idea then. I use adblock on all of my devices, but sometimes things slip through. And I sometimes click on one of those SEO fake "articles" that are really just ads when I'm searching for something.

I've been trying to reach you about your car insurance.

When I don't see any ads, my friends and I like to celebrate with a refreshing Pepsi!

Don't forget to use Ridge Shadow VPN when anonymously buying your Pepsi!

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I see hundreds of ads every day on almost every hat, T-shirt, shoe, hand bag, bus, bus stop enclosure, train, and car I pass throughout the day.

Hell, my neighbor just had his house painted so I literally can't walk around the block without seeing an yard sign advertising a painting company.

I don't want all advertising to disappear. If you are annoyed by businesses having branding you've gone too far. I've often seen work done and contacted the contractor through their site signage

I understand that advertising and branding works. Some are more annoying than others, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter if it's a banner ad in a website, or a vinal decal on a truck. It is still an ad, and it's effectiveness at influencing our decisions is not none.

The question was "when did you last see an ad?". I think my answer is fair. All the friggin' time.

The nice thing about subtle branding is that they can't really lie about their work. A painting company can't CGI a real-life house. You'll get what you see and you see what you'll get. Of course, over-the-top flashy branding is still super fucking annoying.

"Good morning neighbor! And if I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!"

You (and I) are the reason the product placement in TV and movies is becoming so profitable. Now quick, move that Coke can and throw the Lexus into MaxoSport™ mode so we can escape the Krill!

Edit to answer your question: I watched the trailer for Invincible Season 2 last night. That was the last ad I watched.

The thing is, I'm not against a little ad here and there from time to time. I understand that someone needs to pay for the things we use "for free".

But what is going on now is just plain old exploitation. Nothing more nothing less.

Back when Google started, the idea was to only show discrete text ads on search. Then they started showing image ads and created AdSense which basically shows Google ads on external pages. The real killer was when Google bought doubleclick. Until then Google didn't do ad tracking but with dclk (which has a tracking cookie) things went downhill fast. Ever wonder why Google ads domains are (or used to be) doubleclick.net? Because changing the domain would make Google lose all those yummy doubleclick tracking cookies.

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You have definitely seen ads in Windows, you just don't realize they're ads. Windows recommending Edge, OneNote, or OneDrive? All ads. The "recommended apps" section? Ads.

Unless you have gutted Windows 10 and never connected it to the internet, you're seeing ads from Microsoft.

Yep its debloated and connected to internet. Never seen a Microsoft ad

You may not be seeing traditional TV and internet ads but I promise you that you see plenty of marketing every day of your life regardless of how much ad-blocking you try.

Yup. Go about your day and count how many "Nike Swooshes" you see. Branding is marketing is advertising.

You sure? What about your mailbox that probably contains promotional emails from your bank or your ISPs?

Junk mail should be illegal. Such a waste of resources and it's absolutely unsolicited harassment. Imagine if those companies faced the same sort of consequences you'd personally get if you kept mailing someone shit constantly.

Junk e-mail, you mean? I don't really mind them, and automatically straight up to the Trash. I have filters to do this.

I rarely receive a physical mail on my mailbox, except my electricity and water bills every month.

I mean physical mail. 98% of the mail we receive is junk and ads and there's nothing we can do about it. Spam email goes straight to the spam folder automatically, it's a non-issue.

I think the only ads I see at home are Steam and my trash email.

One of my friend has YouTube in his TV that pumps ads, another friend watches the old-fashioned TV that also pumps ads, shopping malls have audio and visual ads, bus and train stations have ads...so I guess the last time I saw an ad was 7 hours ago or so.

One friend of mine pays for IPTV. Paying for ad-riddled cable network streams is wild to me.

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Whenever I turn my VPN off to check my bank account and forget to turn it back on.

I use nextdns with any VPN. So when I turnoff VPN, nextdns still stays active and blocks ads. Try it, hope it works.

Thank you finally got around to setting it up on my phone.

You can probably set private dns in your router or in your phone settings

Honestly, that's a good question. I use a DNS level ad block and that takes care of the vast majority of them. I also use a lot of either open source software which does not contain ads or front ends to services that do contain ads that strip the ads out like newpipe.

I recently wanted to watch a TV show that I could only find on Discovery Plus.

Signed up, started playing and an advert starts playing!?!? When did it become normal to serve ads for a service you’re already paying for.

Anyway I cancelled and pirated the show

When did it become normal to serve ads for a service you’re already paying for.

Since cable television? 🤔

Every day at the subway station. Huge TV is playing ads.

I look up my windows, and see ads on buildings, also again huge TVs playing ads.

In my elevator there is an announcement for the building Christmas party, that's an ad, it's relevant to my immediate interests but it's still an advertisement.

Depends on what you mean by "seeing an ad." An intrusive video ad on YouTube or another video site, or a bunch of annoying pop-ups? Nope, haven't seen one in years, either. Non-intrusive banner ads on sites I've specifically whitelisted in order to help them financially because I like their content and services? Yeah, seen those, but I don't mind them, and I never whitelist sites where the ads are intrusive.

Ahh so you're oblivious and don't realize you're watching ads. Not sure if that's a good thing.

I run ad blockers on everything, at a software and network level and still see ads from time to time. Let alone my friend posting on social media how great a product is they're sponsored to promote which is an ad.

You can block a majority of them but it's impossible to block them all, and you're delirious if you think you have unless you severely restrict your interactions with Internet-connected services or have spent days tinkering/blocking out most content.

Five minutes ago, here on Lemmy.

WHATS THE BEST ______ You found on ____?

Every single time I log in and windows wants to upgrade from windows 10 to windows 11. Every single time I have to use edge at work. I've got a pihole and DNS ad blocking and so on. I don't generally see ads on my phone or personal computer. The switch shows me new upcoming games etc. So does the PS5. Plus I get flyers in the mail and see billboards etc.

When I went to see a movie and because I've not done that in a while I forget that you don't actually have to turn up at the time that is on the ticket. You turn up about 20 minutes later so you don't have to look at car ads.

Laptop/desktop, almost never

Phone, getting better, but don't quite have it sorted, especially since I'm constantly playing browser bingo and situations like links from Lemmy frequently get me watching cancerous websites because I've got the wrong browser that worked last week but not today set as default.

I know I'm not supposed to use it because something something the owner is a terrible person, but Brave has been the most effective YouTube browser since vanced died and I'm not savvy enough to get revanced.

On the revanced topic, if you search something like revanced github it should show up as the first link, you need the revanced patcher.

If you actually meant that you didn't have a clue how to use it, this is how:

  • get the latest patcher from github
  • find the corresponding YouTube version (believe it's the same as the patcher version, I'm probably wrong though)
  • install the YouTube version you found
  • run patcher, go to the patcher tab and select YouTube.
  • patch
  • and you should be done

It's a bit bothersome compared with vanced but doable.

Desktop? On my WinPC as I was disabling them the other day.

And steam advertising it's next big sale.

Oh and shilling in YouTube videos for their own brand

And Google going "please login into this website using me!!!"

Yeah no, they don't take up my time anymore but they're definitely still there

(Android phone, Linux personal PC/ laptop, Windows remote work PC (camera & mic unreliable)

I applaud you setting up a pi-hole....

But please bro, you've probably seen hundreds of ads this month if not more. Not everything is listed on the pi hole ad lists.

And not every ad classifies itself as an "ad".

I never said I am using pi-hole. I use nextdns on my router and all open source adblocking apps on my devices. Windows and android are fully debloated.

I see ads on my phone every day because I don't know how to block ads on the YouTube app and I still want their algorithm recommendations so I don't use the other apps that pull from YouTube.

On android Revanced is best option, or stream via website on a browser with adblock.

If you don't care about the algorithm the NewPipe or LibreTube are great.

I'm using Brave if I want to watch ad-free youtube videos on my phone. You can also install an ad-blocker on mobile Safari to achieve the same result.

No adds on my Android phone, Linux and windows hehe

Which version of Windows?

11, Why?

How can you claim of no ads on windows 11?

It is loaded with ads in start menu.

I have kids PC and I see that.

Mmm, haven't you heard about debloating? Head to Chris Titus on YouTube. He has good tutorials about debloating Windows 11.

It is good to know, but it will only work until MSFT decides to enforce things.

Linux is s better alternative to have no ads.

I use sync for lemmy, so every time I go on lemmy I see ads. Also when YouTubers have in- video sponsor ads. I skip them but it's still an inconvenience. Same for podcasts

Only on TV and radio. And in magazines and movies and at ball games, on buses and milk cartons and T-shirts and bananas and written on the sky. But not on my personal devices. No, sir-ee!

Today. I don't block ads on the sites I use or read but don't otherwise pay for.