[Raphmedia]

Ads are malware to the mind.

I don't want to eat fast-food, but they will use shiny pictures, bright colors, reverse psychology, "everyone else eat burgers" tactics, etc. to make me want it.

They are little squares of manipulation.

[dave2000]

Ah, but not everyone eats fast food, so there must be a way to resist them.

[Raphmedia]

Willpower.

Your willpower is low when you are tired or in an advanced state of mind.

Take a look at decision fatigue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_fatigue

"Decision fatigue can influence irrational impulse purchases at supermarkets. During a trip to the supermarket, trade-off decisions regarding prices and promotions can produce decision fatigue, hence by the time the shopper reaches the cash register, less willpower remains to resist impulse purchases of candy and sugared items."

We are bombarded with ads, which we discard, but every time we discard one, it tires us.

[dave2000]

When I read that sort of thing i'd like I'm reliving the 1980s, where everyone had that sort of "they live" (the movie) paranoia that they were being controlled.

You can easily transcend all of that.

Not the fact that you're being controlled by an elite consisting of rich, well brought up white people and a media which serves them and each other.

But the day to day annoyances of adverts and supermarket deals etc. If you read books, listen to music ripped from CDs, watch movies/tvs from netflix/downloads etc, then you're going to suffer only very slight interference from ads. Certainly I see no justification for the suggestion it's "tiring" to "discard" an ad.

If you have to shop in supermakets (and you do not) then it's possible to just buy sensible stuff; fruit, veg, milk, juice, break, rice etc. You don't need to wander down the colourful aisles and pay over the odds for this seasons exciting "as seen on tv" junk foods. It's hard to imagine any self-respecting HN reading struggling to understand which size/brand of some product is the cheapest. It's not remotely taxing to do this, and mental activity keeps your mind fit and staves off dementia. It has no consequence on willpower whatsoever. In any event, a lot of shops in the UK have no "candy" by the "cash register" because it annoys parents who have to get their kids to stop screaming for it.

[Raphmedia]

> It's hard to imagine any self-respecting HN reading

Exactly, but most people are not HN readers.

I've added countless ads to websites, added countless trackers, implemented countless marketing emails. Of course I am aware of what's happening behind the scene.

Most people are going to be watching TV and be bombarded by ads. They are then going to go to the supermarket, and be bombarded by packaging. They are going to listen to radio on the way to work and be bombarded by audio ads, with some nice billboards on top.

Every day, we are trying harder and harder to customize our ads to be more effective toward users. It's not paranoia. We have "loyalty" cards that track all of our users purchases which we analyse and use to send targeted ads. We are working our best to beat the mind's "firewall" to inject our "malwares" into the mind of the consumers.