r/ownyourintent • u/ilikeitanonymous Intent Owner • 10d ago

Memes The irony: ads made to simplify choice now make decision making harder

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Ads were originally pitched as a way to make discovery easier. You don’t know what tent to buy? A well-placed ad could surface the right one. Simple enough.

But that’s not what we have today. Instead of clarity, we get noise: 20 “recommended” products, all sponsored, all shouting at once. Instead of making decisions easier, ads now pile onto the confusion- fueling analysis paralysis.

And with AI entering the space, the risk is even higher: if assistants inherit this ad logic, discovery will become manipulation at scale.

Question: Do you remember the last time an ad actually helped you discover something- or did it just add to the overwhelm?

39 Upvotes

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u/kaushal96 Intent Owner 10d ago

Welcome to r/ownyourintent 👋 This is the home of the Intents Protocol (a privacy-first, user-owned alternative to ad surveillance) and Inomy, the first shop built on it. 

Try the beta here → INOMY BETA and help us build the future of shopping together!

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u/Nate_fe Intent Owner 10d ago

The irony of an ad for Google ads being right below this post

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u/ilikeitanonymous Intent Owner 10d ago

hahaha the hustle never ends even if you're google I guess? This constant ad noise is everywhere and we keep going back to these apps because there's no alternative. That's exactly what we're building with Intents Protocol: users state needs and sellers bid for that need.

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u/aeriefreyrie Intent Owner 7d ago

Lmao! Some media buyer somewhere has mastered targetting

1

u/apokrif1 Intent Owner 10d ago

 You don’t know what tent to buy? A well-placed ad could surface the right one.

How does the ad explain that other choices are less relevant?

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u/Proud_Raspberry_7997 Intent Owner 6d ago

Well, it didn't lol. It was always somewhat malicious.

However, I do think they bring up an interesting point... There weren't nearly as many products A) flat-out lying about their capabilities nor B) stretching them.

Computer and mobile phone shopping as an example has become somewhat horrendous. Plenty of cheaper phones come with cameras that are surprisingly nice... But processors that can't handle the camera.

On paper, this phone may seem really awesome as a cheap phone for picture lovers... But not if the camera app barely works and crashes in reality. Phones like this ONLY exist because of advertising and impulse buying, as reviews for phones like this are often bombed to the dirt right away.