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Decoding Advertising In A Digital Age

The internet doesn’t understand the advertising business. Then again, neither do most advertisers. A Preview of a Medium Premium series from NewCo Shift.

One of the first Medium Premium series created in conjunction with noted authors and journalists, Which Half Is Wasted, by agency vet Rick Webb, explores the role of advertising in our society and economy, with a particular focus on digital advertising, which Webb argues presumes the migration of television brand dollars to the internet (a presumption that he declares false). In this exclusive series (membership is required, but Medium does have a “metered paywall’), Webb asks if we really understand the advertising business, and explores the effects the business has on what gets built online.

The first article in the series, which you can read here, states that society has thrown out the social contract that made advertising moral, as more and more advertising money is spent on online platforms like Facebook & Google, rather than supporting news gathering and content creation. It wasn’t long ago when advertising’s upside was that it allowed media creation to flourish.

Read the first article here:

Which Half Is Wasted?

Explore the entire series:

Which Half Is Wasted? - Medium

Part I

Which Half Is Wasted?

Part II

The Internet Bet on Advertising. But It Got the Bet Wrong.

Part III

The Internet’s Pyrrhic Victory Over TV

Part IV

Social Media Is Killing the News

Part V

Ad Tech’s Impossible Mission

Part VI

Solving Wanamaker’s Dilemma