The idea feels like sci-fi because you’re so used to it, imagining ads gone feels like asking to outlaw gravity. But humanity had been free of current forms of advertising for 99.9% of its existence. Word-of-mouth and community networks worked just fine. First-party websites and online communities would now improve on that.
The traditional argument pro-advertising—that it provides consumers with necessary information—hasn’t been valid for decades.
Not at all. I find a fair amount through Kickstarter campaigns, like the Yarro Studios Dice-o-matic, and the mandolin Youtube channel I follow will obviously self-promote their Patreon which has all kinds of great content. A lot of product reviews done by stores would be likely counted as advertisements, too. I’ve found good music through Instagram ads for it and I don’t even listen to Negative25 but their ad videos are really funny skits all on their own.
The thing is that we tend to like to know about things that we will enjoy and we don’t mind watching good ads. Bad ads, ads that are lying or dancing around the truth, and especially ads for things we don’t care about(which is everything if it interrupts a tense moment in a show) are all what we really don’t want to see.