Advertising is a necessity (Score 1)

As an advertising major, I can say that you're right about the motives of advertising: it IS to get the consumer's attention. However, you might reconsider your position on advertising. Do you work for a company? Or are you just independently wealthy? Absolutely every person who produces anything must advertise. Think I'm wrong? If you produce a component that another company uses in manufacturing a product, you advertised to bring that component to the attention of that manufacturer. The media that runs the advertising the final consumer sees was advertised to by the companies the advertising is for. Without advertising, you would probably find it difficult to buy what you wanted to buy. Without that Red Hat, Linux wouldn't be as mainstream as it's becoming, because it wouldn't be as accessible as it is. The main concern is where the revenue from this advertising is going. For newspapers and magazines, it's going back into the production of the media. Subscriptions aren't obscene, and neither are they a way for the media to support itself directly. Subscriptions only serve to give the media a means of stable circulation, which in turn enables them to sell advertising. Until we all become psychic, or completely self-sufficient, advertising is an integral part of life. If you don't like it, you should probably stop working and live in a tent.