&gt; advertising is much more powerful&#x2F;effective today than it ever was before<p>I&#x27;m sceptical of that. I grew up pre internet and much information on stuff to buy came from TV ads, magazines financed by advertising and the like. Now I&#x27;ve basically stopped watching TV and reading those, read non commercial stuff like HN and when I want to buy toys check out the review sites to see which product is best, not which has the sexiest ads. Here&#x27;s a graph showing ad spend tailing off <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.digitaltonto.com&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2011&#x2F;11&#x2F;Ad-spend-and-GDP1-e1322623185116.png" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.digitaltonto.com&#x2F;wp-content&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;2011&#x2F;11&#x2F;Ad-sp...</a><p>(from <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.digitaltonto.com&#x2F;2011&#x2F;how-digital-leakage-is-redefining-marketing-services&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.digitaltonto.com&#x2F;2011&#x2F;how-digital-leakage-is-rede...</a>)