Avoid Ads Entirely

Muting or skipping ads on any medium may seem like an effective way to solve the problem, but ignorance doesn't mean the ad isn't still lodged somewhere inside your memory. While avoiding ads entirely is pretty much an impossible prospect, you can still make the effort to get as close as possible. Of course, this means making sacrifices.

If you want to cut out ads from television and never, ever see them, your options aren't necessarily great. You can buy DVDs when they come out several months after the television season has ended, you can purchase content at a premium (either online or on demand through your cable provider), or you can download content via the internet (which may require a set of flexible ethics). You can't remove or block ads in a magazine or newspaper, so you'll have to start reading online and use an ad blocker. Even with all of that, you still can't avoid billboard ads or ads you see outside of your personally cultivated ad-free zone. You're also not without the influence of reference lifestyles (as discussed earlier) unless you cut out entertainment media altogether. You simply cannot live without ads if you want to be a part of modern society, but a significant reduction is possible using the aforementioned methods.

Photo by Alfonso Contreras

While I, personally, do what I just described—and have for over a decade—there are plenty of reasons you shouldn't. First of all, if ad revenue is how companies are able to afford to provide entertainment, blocking or removing their ads can hurt their budget. If everyone did that, they'd have no money to produce the content you want. When you don't see ads, you'll sometimes find yourself lost in a conversation about ads and products you've never heard of. If you like watching televised sports, you don't get to watch them live (which can ruin the experience). In fact, you don't get to watch anything live and that generally means watching it the next day. Giving up ads requires patience and sacrifice. While I consider those two things to be very important skills, that's just my opinion. How you choose to approach this problem is entirely up to you. The most important thing is to remember to think, because regardless of how manipulative advertisements can be your choices are still yours and yours alone.