Product placement may play a bigger role. Apple has already shown the world how effective buying/trading your products into 4 out of 5 TV shows and movies can b

Product placement may play a bigger role. Apple has already shown the world how effective buying/trading your products into 4 out of 5 TV shows and movies can be. I don't know how active major brands are in online placement, but the FTC disclosure rules are generally considered easy to skirt or just plain ignore by smaller players. Looking around at tech blogs and social media it's easy to spot dozens of pieces a day that might as well be ads for firms like google, microsoft, samsung, amazon, apple etc. In many ways these are far better than display ads because of the engagement of reading and sometimes commenting on a piece. The measurable difference between some of these brand's #1 fans and paid promoters seems quite small. How sure are we that some of them aren't just ads already?