Imagine driving to work Monday morning, just as the sun is coming up. Although it’s your typical commute, for some reason the sky looks more beautiful than usual. The trees look as if they could have been masterfully painted, each with its own unique shape and size, creating an entrancing effect as you pass by them. For once, your mind is completely at peace. While pondering why today was more special than any other mundane Monday morning, you realize that you didn’t pass a single billboard, your email didn’t notify you of any Earth-shattering deals, and you actually connected with the world around you...It was ad-less.

Many people living in the United States and other highly industrial societies, myself included, could only dream of a drive to work such as the one visualized above; in which oneness with your environment is valued more than consumerism, where the glamorousness of consumption isn’t branded with a hot iron into your brain. However, places like this do exist; Brazil, for example, has over the past several years begun to regulate advertising rigorously . Not only have they eliminated billboards completely, they have restricted the types of advertising they allow to ensure that people are making healthy and well-informed choices.

Another country that has taken a step to a less consumer focused society is Wales. Annie Leonard, the author of The Story of Stuff, describes her personal account while in visiting: “I saw almost no advertising and not a single billboard. We went from town to town without seeing any blaring signs telling us to buy something. I felt like I’d gone back in time one hundred years. Being free of the constant assault of ads was such a relief.”

While some places have begun to take steps towards an ad-less environment, the United States has taken a more consumer-focused, over-consumption reliant path. If the United States followed in the footsteps of the countries specified above, the positive impact it would have on our society and the economy could be profound. Not only would it positively affect our connectedness with the world around us, and decrease the focus on consumerism, it could have a positive ecological impact, decrease media influence, and foster a more financially fair environment.

People’s minds are being flooded with useless information on a daily basis, leaving less space for individual thought and reflection. If the United States enforced stricter regulations on advertisements, the most immediate social effect would be a greater focus on engaging on a personal level with the environment and other people. Not only would this promote a more connected culture, but it could lead to more meaningful connections, uninterrupted by constant blaring signs. Not to mention, an extended result of these connections could include minimizing stress levels and depression, which has been proven to decrease with positive interaction.

While physical advertisements are considered a disturbance, many would agree that this problem is only worsened by the use of internet advertising, such as email, and online shopping, for it sometimes plays an equal role in overconsumption and disconnect from those around you. Another valid concern is that it's been proven impulse buys are now more likely to occur online than in stores, making mindless consumption right at your fingertips. To put this issue to scale, online retail revenue saw an 11 percent year-over-year growth rate for the first quarter of 2014, with online orders up 13 percent compared to the same quarter last year, and online shopping hit online shopping hit $2.29 billion in sales this past Cyber Monday in sales this past Cyber Monday. This revenue could be distributed more effectively and purposefully into other sectors of society. Rather than promoting the inevitability of habitual online shopping, people could be using this money to pay off their debts, which also seems to be a problem uniquely higher in the U.S. than most countries, with an average household debt of $130,922.

Online and traditional advertising have both mastered the art of making people want things that they don’t need for the sake of convenience or status; in the case of online shopping, it is so expedient and disconnected from the product and process that oftentimes people aren’t mindful of how much it will cost in the long run to themselves and even society as a whole. On an individual scale, it seems harmless but when you consider that two-thirds of Americans online shop at least once a month of Americans online shop at least once a month, this topic becomes legitimate very quickly. This degree of online spending could make a noticeable negative impact on local economies that are being overrun by cheaper international options, not to mention the cost on the environment to constantly be shipping products across the world is going to make its impact slowly but surely.

Not only do these advertisements and consumption-focused schemes promote the purchase of things people don’t need, it convinces them to buy products in mass quantities, sometimes far more than what could even be used in the foreseeable future. A perfect example of this would be produce. According to the World Resources Institute,“About one-third of all food produced worldwide, worth around US$1 trillion, gets lost or wasted in food production and consumption systems. When this figure is converted to calories, this means that about 1 in 4 calories intended for consumption is never actually eaten.” Oftentimes ads promote buying things you don’t need, or more than you need. A good example is when stores offer “10 Items for $10” sales. While you think you’re getting a deal with these discounted items, at the end of the day you’re probably going to buy something you don’t need.

If people focused on the quality, and external costs associated with the things they buy, as much as they do the cost to them personally, we would all live in a very different world. A way to combat this would be to limit advertising because then rather than having unnecessary and fabricated information thrown in people’s faces, the success of businesses would be based on the actual quality of the good, and the good word of others. When people are given more space to do their own research, undoubtedly they will make better purchasing decisions.

On a comparable note, if businesses stopped spending their resources on unnecessary design and packaging, people could pay more attention to the quality of the product. An equally important advantage of this would be that companies would save money and resources cutting back on physical branding, advertisements, and packaging that could be utilized elsewhere. If one were to look even closer, they’d find out that when they chose to buy the name-brand mac and cheese, they were still buying the same exact product as the off-brand, because often times they are owned by the same parent company and their products are just rebranded to different demographics. If these parent brands would consolidate into one brand, not only would they save money, they would minimize overproduction and waste.

While big brands can oftentimes pull a fast one on consumers, small businesses are the ones truly feeling the pain. Big brands typically hold a majority of the market share in their industry because they can afford to make their name known, have better product placement in stores, and can afford to buy out smaller businesses. This reduces and eliminates competition in the market and could increase income inequality because oftentimes small businesses have far less of a chance to flourish, especially at the grocery store. When was the last time you purchased a name brand food item that you haven’t seen some kind of advertisement for?

Now before anyone jumps the gun, I don't believe that ads should disappear completely. This is a desperate call to action to de-clutter our lives so we can focus on what's really important. When someone chooses to shop or seek out reviews and information, it should be available in a designated place, such as a website or catalog. However, on my commute to work, when I'm doing research for school, or corresponding with someone in my emails, I don't want to be bombarded with useless distractions.

Another criticism of this argument is that marketing is an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people around the U.S., so many people could be left unemployed, with a skill set rendered useless. However, I don’t believe this is a field that should be eliminated in the slightest. If designers, strategists, and researchers are no longer focused on traditional advertising, they could use their professional assets to promote social causes and create more efficient and eco-friendly packaging. There is plenty of room in the world for artistic expression, however, does a package that you're going to throw away really have to be beautiful? Not to mention, I would rather admire nature than a billboard.

Overconsumption has been condemned for centuries, oftentimes in the form of historical stories warning us of our demise if we follow in the footsteps of our greedy ancestors. While the times have changed, the root problem has not. In simple terms, Gandhi states: “It is a theft for me to take any fruit that I do not need, or to take it in a larger quantity than is necessary. We are not always aware of our real needs, and most of us improperly multiply our wants and thus unconsciously make thieves of ourselves.”