One other fundamental shift that information technology makes to advertising is that digital tools, reviews, and marketplaces somewhat undermine some primary fu

One other fundamental shift that information technology makes to advertising is that digital tools, reviews, and marketplaces somewhat undermine some primary functions of advertising. I no longer care about brand or advertising information when buying commodity products on Amazon; I simply sort by # of reviews * avg score, read a sample of reviews at each star level, and I already have a general picture of the product's quality and consumer satisfaction. The parts of advertising meant to demonstrate "Hey, we're a quality company that can afford this prestigious advertising slot, therefore the reliability of our products is assured" has been eaten by frictionless digital review platforms. Of course, advertising and branding serve other purposes as well, and will always be some part of the purchasing decision. But social software and AI will likely continue getting better at matching consumers with products over time.