I understand this but it doesn't really counteract my point: it pays for stuff. It (helps) pay for your bus stop (or at least it does in the states), it's on paid television because you'd have to pay EVEN MORE for it, and movies on top of that.
Now, if you made an argument that the entire structure is screwed up and the people at the top deserve to make less and therefore not needing as much cash flow and therefore we should be able to cut the ads, THEN I might agree...
I don't believe that my train or bus would cost substantially more without the advertising.
And even if it did, it's just an internalization of costs.
The advertising (if it works) pulls money in through a side channel (someone sees an ad and later buys a thing).
It makes far more sense to just pay for the bus.
Other examples, like ads at the side of the road, don't even pay for anything. Driving along the road, I see an ad in a farmer's field. I'm not using that field in any meaningful sense.
edit: I actually looked up the transport example.
Transport for London had approximately a 1:20 ratio of advertising to fare revenue last year.
So, I'd have to pay approximately 5% more, or 7 pence per bus fare, to not have adverts plastered on the inside and outside of buses, tubes, station platforms, corridors within stations, and probably various roads under TfL authority as well.
I think the world in which we pay 7 pence more for bus fare and have nice artwork on the bus or something instead of hair loss adverts that call us ugly balds is better.
I lived in Berlin for a little while and when I moved back to London I was shocked by all the advertising on the tube. I had sort of filtered a lot of it out when I lived in London and then got hit with it afresh when I returned.
Berlin just has... clean empty walls on the metro. I mean yeah there's advertising and particularly crappy screens on the actual trains but it's so much better.
oh man now you give me ideas... kind of like the guy who tattooed an AD on his face. For 1c per post i will let your company put some BS tagline in all of my reddit/HN/forum posts
My local bus stop has adverts (London).
My local metro station does too (London).
They're all over the roads (UK).
They're in pubs (UK).
They're on paid television services (Sky).
They're on paid programs (Windows 10).
They're shown before movies (cinema, UK).
Advertising is _everywhere_, in paid services, unpaid services, whatever.
Unless I'm in my own, or a friend's private home I could probably find an advert by spinning my head around.
Ask yourself - why haven't you included an advert on your comment? You could, and it'd allow you to comment on HN more, right?