Advertising is a gross inefficiency on the economy. To achieve market balance you need to make sure consumers are aware of your product - back in the day this

Advertising is a gross inefficiency on the economy. To achieve market balance you need to make sure consumers are aware of your product - back in the day this was rather difficult since there was no central repository of all knowledge. Now that we've got the internet though... this is unnecessary to achieve a healthy level of company growth. However, if you want to cannibalize an industry's profit margins to squeeze in front of your competitors advertising in many forms will remain productive. I think we almost need a cartel-like system that says "Okay video card manufactures - enough with the advertising... nobody impulse buys video cards so each sale you gain through advertising is just coming from one of the other company's pockets (or your own)."