Advertising for charity has some funny game theory implications. A given charity often observes that every dollar of advertising increases contributions by 2 do

Advertising for charity has some funny game theory implications. A given charity often observes that every dollar of advertising increases contributions by 2 dollars. They the justifyably continue increasing their advertising budget until it reaches saturation, and every dollar of advertising only brings in $1.01 (more or less). If you assume that this advertising in net increases the size of the pie of charitable giving, it can be considered an overall good thing. If you assume that this advertising in net just redistributes the contributions that would go to one slice of the pie to another, it is wasteful. Data on which side is true is hard to come by.