There’s a couple of different reasons that this happens. - Things like Red Bull events are for general awareness and can provide a source of content that is us

There’s a couple of different reasons that this happens. - Things like Red Bull events are for general awareness and can provide a source of content that is used on other platforms. This is similar to TV or billboard advertising where you can’t measure direct impact but it’s getting eyes on your brand. There’s also the element of “we’re a big important company and you can tell because we wasted all of this money” - In some cases brands buy a package of ad space from an agency and don’t pick where it shows up - the agency is supposed to fill ad space in front of the desired audience but can’t find enough inventory. Rather than give the money back and have a smaller budget to renew next quarter they dump it in lower quality spots. - Some advertising is also defensive in that you’re denying space that your competitors can buy - Occasionally brands will get a discount for a larger ad buy knowing that the ads will show up in lower performing locations - but they still got the bulk discount - In some cases people just screw up and don’t manage budgeting, retargeting, frequency, or other limits so the automated systems find somewhere/anywhere to show the ad since the platform is guaranteeing some amount of visibility - Content placement is definitely on the shittier end of ad quality but it can be much cheaper or may be included as part of an ad package for a specific site or publisher Generally advertising seems to be a net negative and the increase in ad space drives down costs so ad platforms need more ad buys and more advertisers to fill the ever-growing inventory but how else are you going to tell people about your product at scale?