Advertising based 'free' things cost you far more than a subscription ever would. This is because Advertising Works and it works on you too. You are being manipulated into buying things you wouldn't buy, manipulated into making poor decisions you wouldn't otherwise make. Generations of people lost decades with relatives from smoking and drinking that would not have happened but for advertising. Advertising makes people poorer by leading them to allocate their funds in a worse way.
I'm not saying we should outlaw advertising, there is no realistic way to do so that respects rights. However, you should absolutely refuse to consume advertising whenever possible. Block it, mute it, and refuse to consume content or use services where avoiding advertising is not possible!
>Advertising based 'free' things cost you far more than a subscription ever would.
Let's say someone watches 1 YouTube video per month. Is it worth it to buy YouTube premium at $12/month? What if that person makes minimum wage in the US? What if that person makes the global median wage: $227/month? Free advertising-supported things provide web resources that the poor wouldn't otherwise be able to afford.
I do pay for Youtube Premium (previously Youtube Red). It comes with Youtube Music bundled and is still cheaper than spotify.
YouTube creators get maybe $0.018 per view. Lets say an average video is 15 minutes long (not a crazy thought) and I watched YouTube 5 hours a day. In a 30 day month, this would mean creators are paid 30 * 5 * 60 / 15 * .018 == $10.80. Realistically, lets say I watch for 2 hours, 5 days a week. Then it's 21 * 2 * 60 / 15 * .018 == $3.02. I suspect creators making content for an Indian or Kenyan audiences get paid much less per view, so you can charge users in countries that consume that content significantly less and still make the same payments to creators. Of course the cost would be slightly higher because Youtube wants to make a profit, but advertising doesn't pay creators very well.
Compare this to a cable TV subscription which might cost someone $80 to $200 a month and still has far more advertising than YouTube (almost 1/3 of the view time) and is quite reasonable that people might pay $6 for ad-free youtube. My original point was that even if I paid $20/month just to avoid youtube advertising, I would probably save money net because I would avoid being influenced into buying things I don't need.
I see what you are saying, but you are not correct on any of these points.
'depends on cost': It can't actually depend, on average. Advertisers keep spending money because they make more back overall than they spend on advertising. Only a small fraction of that increase in income is paid in fees to the platform that is funded by the advertising. To make the same amount of money, the platform would only have to charge you a small fraction of what advertisers are making off of those same users.
Advertising isn't a battle of wills, it is leveraging psychology to manipulate you in ways you aren't even aware of. It works on you just as well as it works on everyone else, if you don't think so it probably works better than average.
Ehh, the ad networks want advertiser to believe that but they also do sketchy things like intercepting (and taking credit for) customers who already had an intent to purchase. There was a big story about Uber cutting lots of ad spending with little impact a while ago: https://thehustle.co/01072021-uber-ad-spend/
I mean you can find specific examples where ads are done poorly or there isn't ROI, but Coke isn't like the #1 drink in every restaurant based on taste.
I don't think it gets me to buy things I wouldn't otherwise, but it directs me to certain brands subconsciously (more ad time, more trustworthy (...not saying that's necessarily accurate...)).
Advertising does things like making people familiar to a brand, and to associate certain feelings, imagery, values and words (which would be "branding"). It's far from just making people buy things directly. Rather it's literally making people think about things otherwise they wouldn't think about.
I'm not saying we should outlaw advertising, there is no realistic way to do so that respects rights. However, you should absolutely refuse to consume advertising whenever possible. Block it, mute it, and refuse to consume content or use services where avoiding advertising is not possible!