What if advertising was illegal?

13st June 2025

Imagine waking up tomorrow in a world with no advertising: no banner ads, no pop-ups, no billboards. No jingles, no influencers pausing mid-sentence to promote a teeth-whitening kit, and no targeted Instagram stories trying to sell you a jacket you glanced at once.

TV and radio breaks? Gone. YouTube mid-rolls? Gone. Sponsored tweets and branded TikToks? Gone.

It sounds almost surreal - maybe even a little utopian. But what would that world actually look like?

I’ve long been uncomfortable with the role advertising plays in our lives. I often recommend that people use ad blockers, and I avoid installing apps that rely on ads. Over time, I’ve found myself wondering: what if we just banned ads altogether? The more I think about it, the more ideal it seems.

Surprisingly, when I float this idea to other people, it’s usually met with resistance:

• “What about the content creators? All your favourite influencers wouldn’t be able to create entertainment anymore!”
• “Television basically runs on ads - banning ads would be basically banning television!”
• “Marketing is a huge industry; think about how many people would lose their jobs!”
• “Small businesses rely heavily on advertising. Without ads, they’d cease to exist!”
• “Social media would pretty much disappear - and that can’t be a good thing!”

…among various other concerns which I can’t quite get my head around. But before jumping into my own take, let’s briefly list some of the major changes we’d see.

What would actually change if we banned advertising?

1. The content economy would contract - especially for the small minority dependent on ad revenue.
   • Influencers, content creators and streamers would need to retrain or switch industries - although those who make a living from content creation represent only around 1% of the global population {source 1} {source 2}.
   • Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch would either shrink dramatically or pivot to subscription-style models, most likely losing mass appeal.
   • The advertising industry itself would collapse, forcing marketing and marketing-adjacent professionals (about 2% of the global population) to shift sectors {source}.
2. Social media and ad-driven platforms would fade, with mixed effects.
   • Social media networks would struggle without ad revenue, making it harder to stay in touch, but arguably freeing us from endless doomscrolling and toxic comparisons.
   • Heavy social-media use is linked to anxiety and depression, so many would see mental-health benefits {source}.
3. Our consumption habits - and the planet - would benefit.
   • Impulse buying would drop; decisions would be based on need, quality, or word-of-mouth.
   • Overconsumption would fall, reducing waste, pollution, and fast-fashion’s impact.
   • Without ads cluttering our cities and websites, we’d enjoy cleaner, less stressful spaces - visual clutter raises cortisol, leading to stress {source}.
   • Places like Bhutan, which tightly regulate advertising, hint at boosted well-being - though hard data is sparse.

Summary: Big companies would decline, and a small minority would need to pivot careers. Overall mental health and environmental health would improve. People might save more, though global economic growth would slow.

My take on these changes

1. Advertising-dependent platforms drain well-being.

   Television, Netflix, TikTok - anything that results in the viewer staring passively - fosters shallow thinking and often diminishes mood Sure, it’s nice to chill with a show after a long day. But there’s a strong correlation between TV consumption and lower intelligence {source}. If banning ads ended these platforms, I’d call it a net positive.

2. The attention economy degrades content quality.

   The current system incentivises content creators towards clickbait, sensationalism, and misinformation. Even well-meaning creators can veer into activism or conspiracy. Sometimes content can teach you something useful; and sometimes you’ll laugh out loud at a hilarious cat video; but it can be very difficult to distinguish valuable content from useless or even harmful.

3. Harmful industries get regulated; and so could marketing.

   Consider how we normally treat harmful industries: when society collectively decides that something - like tobacco, hard drugs, or leaded petrol - does more harm than good, we regulate or ban it. Why should the marketing industry - an industry built to manipulate attention - be immune to this kind of scrutiny?

4. Smaller players might actually gain ground.

   Yes, small businesses rely on ads, but so do giant corporations. In fact, big corporations lean far more on ads than smaller businesses. I’d actually expect the playing field to level somewhat, and all companies would have to focus on providing consumers with high quality products.

I admit: some advertising does genuine good - raising awareness of life-improving products, public-service campaigns, etc. But separating ‘good’ ads from ‘bad’ at scale is practically impossible. Plus, dialing back advert reliance would slow economic growth, forcing us to relearn living with less.

Perhaps an outright ban isn’t the answer. A smarter path might be strict regulation, high taxes, or limits so ads become the exception rather than the norm. But the bottom line remains: fewer ads mean a happier, healthier population - less clutter, less stress, fewer distractions. The economy might grumble - capitalism be damned - but I think most of us would breathe easier.