I disagree that only gratuitous shit needs to be advertised. I guess you think this because you believe that if a product is good then word of mouth or whateve

I disagree that only gratuitous shit needs to be advertised. I guess you think this because you believe that if a product is good then word of mouth or whatever will mean that it sells without advertising. This is true to a certain extent if the product is unique in a niche or two or three times better than the alternatives. In the case where the product is best (so it is not gratuitous shit) but not much better. Then in this case word of mouth is not going to provide sales fast enough to prevent cash flow problems and advertising is necessary.