It's the easiest (not the best, IMO) way for companies to reach out to a broad market right now, because consumers as a whole haven't yet figured out that adver

It's the easiest (not the best, IMO) way for companies to reach out to a broad market right now, because consumers as a whole haven't yet figured out that advertising is a negative quality signal and are currently terrible at controlling their information diet. But there are growing segments of the population that are getting better at reading healthy just the same as there's a growing segment concerned about eating healthy. As more information-savvy and time-sensitive (read: higher-income) consumers reject advertising, companies seeking to target them will have to find alternate methods of reaching out to them. If information distribution continues to be disintermediated, then they might find that the only way to do that is by focusing on building things people legitimately want to use and tell their peers about. Traditional advertising will become even more a ghetto than it already is, and will primarily target low-value consumers.