I think the idea is that it keeps you engaged much longer than an ordinary ad would. Now, that just pisses me off when I figure out what's going on because you'

I think the idea is that it keeps you engaged much longer than an ordinary ad would. Now, that just pisses me off when I figure out what's going on because you're deliberately wasting my time, but the claim is that it's measurably more effective than shorter, less-rambling copy. Used to be lots of posts about it on HN, few years back.