Always on the hunt for more ways to reach the masses, advertising has claimed another home to bombard potential consumers.
One Redditor went to r/Anticonsumption to post their unexpected run-in with ad space.
The photo reveals gas station cooler doors that have been turned into digital ads.
"Too bad normal glass doesn't have ad space," the Redditor said sarcastically in the caption.
In the comment thread, one person wrote in a similar tone, "Ah but you see screens can switch to a different ad every 5 seconds, maximizing profit."
Marketing and advertising companies make a living designing new ideas and unique ways to find consumers. An article on Siteefy reported that the average person sees 10,000 ads per day.
It seems like a wild number at first, but when you consider the variety of forms ads manifest themselves, it makes more sense. Emails, junk mail, clickbait, text messages, billboards, flyers, air banners, floating billboards, and the list goes on — they're everywhere.
Insider Intelligence reported that worldwide media ad spending will surpass $1 trillion in 2024. That's a lot of money. Even more so when you take into consideration that the sole purpose of advertising is to drive consumption with expectations of making a return.
Advertising has been proven to negatively impact our well-being and mental health. The bombardment of ads may be harming people's health by contributing to digital overload, according to an article on GoodRx Health.
The Harvard Business Review found that increased advertising in an area is significantly correlated with decreased happiness among local residents.
Overconsumption has become a problem across the globe. However, in the world's richest countries, the material footprint per capita is 10 times higher than the level of low-income countries, according to the UN. As a result, these countries are disproportionately responsible for the planet's rising temperatures.
Luckily, there are ways to reduce personal consumption by shopping secondhand, repairing broken items, and avoiding single-use plastics. Supporting brands that reuse and regenerate materials and products is another great way to keep less in our landfills.
The responses to the post came across as a collective exasperated sigh.
"I absolutely refuse to buy anything behind one of these screens," one comment declared.
"This is just stupid," another Redditor commented.
One comment summed it up, saying, "Such a waste of resources, and you can't see what's behind the glass!"
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