Online advertising is is a collective delusion where ad networks collect more and more personalized metrics about a particular session-device pair, so that they

Online advertising is is a collective delusion where ad networks collect more and more personalized metrics about a particular session-device pair, so that they can hoodwink their clients (i.e. people who want to advertise) into paying more for "targeted" ads, while the viewers of those ads are inevitably confronted by one of the following outcomes: a. they ignore the ad b. they ignore the ad and think negatively about the product c. they mentally register the ad and it builds positive brand awareness but don't click through d. they clickthrough if the offer/proposition was compelling enough anyway In effect, online advertising is like being paid to be promoted on a dating site: if you're attractive or interesting enough on your own, you probably don't even need it but it may help you get matched with a different user than if you hadn't gotten promoted; and if you're not very compelling you're quite possibly flushing money down the drain while your competitors are eating your lunch. It fools the hopeless and the underdogs, while creeping users out, and ultimately affects the landscape little; it's the ultimate rent-seeking.