What If Advertising Died?

If advertising just stopped, what would we miss? Anything? How would life change? Would it? The questions I find myself asking under this scenario rather disturb me:

  • Would we consume less?
  • Would we waste less?
  • Would we be less driven by materialism?
  • Would we miss anything other than laughs with friends around YouTube, and the occasional piece of artistic beauty?
  • Would our lives get better?

Sadly, I don’t find myself asking these questions:

  • Would we serve less?
  • Would we waste more?
  • Would we consume more?
  • Would our lives get worse?
  • Would we miss being inspired?
  • Would we we miss opportunities to care for others and connect in meaningful ways?
  • Would we be less fulfilled?

It’s a cool little exercise, what kinds of questions come to mind when faced with this scenario?

Perhaps I have too high of hopes for the ad world — or perhaps I’m just too critical of advertising. My hope is that one day I can genuinely ask the second list of questions, and I will have been part of making that happen. I think it’s doable.