Is this basically a restatement of the old cliche that only 50% of advertising works, but it's almost impossible to know which 50%. He says "The company has sp

Is this basically a restatement of the old cliche that only 50% of advertising works, but it's almost impossible to know which 50%. He says "The company has spent billions and billions of dollars per year on projects that go nowhere for over a decade" - are these just the missed bets - the projects which if they had succeeded would have added billions and billions to the bottom line, but for any of a number of reasons, failed.