Digital advertising as we know it is just dying and most people know it, or has suspicions. It is slow but it is happening. Certain players are getting better at extracting what they can from it, but the system is moving in such a way that online &quot;advertising&quot; will be considered a really shady business in the long term. It&#x27;s not just that people hate, and don&#x27;t click banners; it&#x27;s because it just doesn&#x27;t do much for the big brands, and their budget is what moves the needle of what big Advertising companies do.<p>Apple&#x27;s move towards blocking ads may help fasten it, but it&#x27;s not about them. It&#x27;s something that&#x27;s bigger and already in motion.<p>Big brands are starting to understand that what they want is not to force someone into seeing their name, but to create something that people actually want to use. Be it an application, be it a service. And not force &quot;INSTALL OUR APP!&quot; into someone&#x27;s screen. For a good example, Coke&#x27;s new app that allows you to customize the drink you can get from their machine. Or Mountain Dew&#x27;s fidelity program tracking app. Baby steps, but it&#x27;s actually something <i>useful</i>. Regardless of what you think of soda or soda drinkers, those are a actual services that some people would find convenient, and would help tie them to the brand.<p>Traditional advertising is a one-way, in-your-face kind of deal, and it works for brand awareness, especially for new consumers (kids). But with the technology we have today, it makes little sense to move that online. We have learned to ignore it. Sure, the internet had to do it, and it helped it grow. But now people are tired. We grew used to it. Most brands are now understanding that there&#x27;s more they can do with the medium, and finding their way out of that death spiral.<p>I&#x27;ve worked in advertising for ~17 years, nearly my whole career. Finally got out of it and couldn&#x27;t be happier. Work was fine and my coworkers were great people (there ARE good advertising agencies out there). But it was easy to see it was a dead-end street.