You are conflating the role of advertising in general vs specific kinds of advertising and consumption that you view as a waste. Our entire industry (tech) relies on advertising to boost awareness of our products.  Is it overconsumption that I saw an ad yesterday for Load Impact &amp; subsequently tested &amp; paid for their (very cool!) service?<p>Overconsumption can be true on an individual level (person X did not need to buy Y).  On an aggregate, consumption is &quot;the economy&quot; and advertising is the primary way of informing potential buyers about an offering.