My experience at superbowl parties is that there are usually a few people who sit through the game without displaying any interest in it (usually opting for an

My experience at superbowl parties is that there are usually a few people who sit through the game without displaying any interest in it (usually opting for an alternate activity like chatting, reading a book, or ogling the nearest baby), but perk up every time a commercial comes on. Based on how common that behavior has been, I'd estimate the number to be "in the millions", and I would parse the behavior as "no interest, watched for commercials". YMMV. "would the phenomenon of Superbowl commercials even exist" Unlikely. But the fact that the phenomenon does exist demonstrates that people ARE interested in advertising under certain circumstances. The internet is fundamentally different, but people are fundamentally the same. The problem here is not "people hate ads", it's "people hate ads of the sort that are common on the internet, they hate them enough to seek technological solutions to block them, and the technological solutions are often applied in such a way as to block all ads indiscriminately." The problem isn't with "advertising" as a whole. It's with advertising as it's currently done on the internet.