> Advertising is unsolicited content which attempts to trigger or nudge a behaviour.

So I'm listening to the radio, and one minute I'm hearing someone on NPR (or an equivalent public broadcaster) explaining how to make my back healthier; the next minute there's someone trying to convince me that some product will make my back healthier.

Which one is advertising and which one is not?

> explaining HOW TO make my back healthier

> that SOME PRODUCT will make my back healthier.

Is it really that tricky?

It is. The advice from the expert includes recommendations to buy a type of product, perhaps without a brand name.

Ads are inauthentic speech someone is paid to express. If entity A pays entity B to say or display their words or content, it's an ad.

This is not an impossible problem. It doesn't need to be perfect, and we can iterate.

Or, instead of trying to decide which speech is good and which is bad, we could let anyone say anything they want, across any medium the cost of which they are willing to bear.

Just wait until the sky is turned Coca-Cola red. Fair game, right?

You seem to be describing some sort of anarcho capitalist fantasy land. There’s a reason no single country on Earth operates like that.

The one where some sort of payment can be demonstrated in court. So quite possibly both if someone at the broadcaster accepted free back care services and decided to produce the story. But yeah, it could get very murky if you go down the rabbit hole and include things like owning shares in a health care provider.