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.
There is state funded news media called European Broadcasting Union, which can do whatever without ads.
Yet their flagship television program, the Eurovision Song Contest, is still being sponsored.
Well, then broadcasters might be beholden to the whims of the government. Certain content might be promoted, and other content suppressed.
And if there’s corporate and ads, that doesn’t happen?
Because that absolutely doesn’t happen now, it just removes the corporate middle man