system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What would be the effects on western society of abolishing paid advertising?

It seems that so many wealthy people owe their fortunes to the effects of paid advertising (everything relating to TV and the internet, for example, not to mention political campaigning in the US).

The purpose of advertising is, after all, to "push" information about something out to the general public.  If this mechanism were to be removed entirely, then the public would need to seek out this information for whatever they are interested in, or, perhaps there is some model for how this might work in a society where advertising is provided as a public service by the government.

Has anyone ever done a study or simulation or thought exercise about how the removal of paid advertising would effect society?  I started thinking about this the other day and it got so huge and far reaching I became unable to think about it clearly.
gpt
I can't speak to this exactly, but you could look into studies out of Sao Paolo, Brazil.

The city banned billboards, and some other forms of public advertising. Basically, the city looks a lot less cluttered.