Obviously, it supports public broadcasts and websites, but it seems to me that without it, companies would have to spend significantly more on actually improving their products- although we'd have to subscribe to radio, the standard of living in most every other area of life might be noticeably higher. It would be somewhat more difficult to find out about new products, but suppose companies were required to announce new products through independent media- lots of for-profit product review services would pop up, I bet.

I've always been of the opinion that public manipulation of any sort undercuts both capitalism and democracy, but I don't mean to rely on vague generalities. What do y'all think?
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rronnieneilan1983: I'm not so sure- advertising doesn't actually make broadcasting cheaper, it just causes companies to pay for it. Without advertising, I doubt companies would simply increase their profit margin by their current ad budget. What I'm wondering is simply wether advertisements are worth the resources actually spent on producing them.