That's just something advertisers tell themselves to sleep better at night. And failing that, they just rub some dollar bills on their faces and then sleep like

That's just something advertisers tell themselves to sleep better at night. And failing that, they just rub some dollar bills on their faces and then sleep like babies. Advertising (regulated or not) is important in manipulating people into buying more stuff. There's no benefit in having your movies, music listening, games or your reading interrupted by ads. There's no benefit in a pair of breasts distracting you on the road from a billboard. There's no benefit in having to throw away all the crap you get per mail. If someone needs something, they will look for it and buy it, but this pull model doesn't result in as many sales as the push model and CxOs have to eat.