Hacktivism Approach – AlexM

A web browser plugin which replaces advertisements from big corporations which are harming the environment, abuses their workers, etc. with advertisements from organizations which are helpful.

“Bad” Advertisement (not that Starz is bad, just as an example)

Good Advertisement

The large and powerful corporations dominate the advertisements that we see both on television as well as online. Often these companies also are not good for us or the environment in some way or another, whether it is an oil company or even fast food. On the other hand, many smaller non-profits who are out to do good do not get the support or recognition that they need. Since they are not focused on profits, they do not have the money to compete against those companies which are. So my idea is to have a web browser plug-in which targets advertisements from specific places (like one from the oil industry for example) and replaces them with an ad from a company or organization that is out to do good.

This plugin would work in a similar way to Adblock, as they would both be targetting ads. However, instead of just hiding them, it would detect the source of the ad and from there determine whether to replace it. The user would be able to edit which organizations to exclude or include from being replaced.

This would be taking away from the big corporation’s publicity while promoting lesser organizations who are out to do good but don’t make a lot of money because of that. It is basically a win-win situation because through this they would not even have to pay for their advertisements other than the costs of producing them.

Budget:

Time- Around 20-30 hours of coding, 10 hours finding appropriate and inappropriate advertisements

Cost- If using 1-2 programmers, ~$30-50/hour