Re: BTW, thought here
I'm with you on that (although seven years younger) however I think one of the reasons so much is spent on advertising is the way market research works. How often have you be en resented with a questionaire like this:
Where did you see our advert:
a) internet
b) television
c) magazine
d) other
There's seldom a box for - I've never seen your adverts and certainly wouldn't pay attenstion if I did. In other words so many retailers start from the assumption that we are incapable of making a purchase without advertising, so they continue to spend fortunes on advertising because their research via questionaires shows them it works.
Of course those questionaires are probably written for them by market research firms who are part of the advertising industry.
The massive uptake on ad blockers should show that people find online advertising intrusive. Instead it seems to make the industry push even more online advertising at those who don't use an ad blocker, which in turn makes even more people install one. Targeted advertising is so much worse as it seems to work on advertising stuff that you already own. Of course this means that the ideal product to advertise would be an ad blocker since it would never be advertised to somebody who already has one.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
