What I've found is that advertising only works if I already wanted that product. That advertisement doesn't have to be these huge ad campaigns that they currently do. It could be as simple as showing a still image of a twix bar, and saying "Hey! Go buy a twix!" Yeah, ok.

But if I wasn't already planning on buying that product? Well that ad time may as well have been some archival footage showing the inside of a 1940s concentration camp in use.

That is to say, both are things that you find offensive to have to be watching, and neither are going to entice you to buy the product.

munches on a twix bar

.....what?

Beat me to this.

Advertisers tend to be strongly opposed to measuring advertising effectiveness, because if they're not effective, then they're out of a job.

Costco further supports this

i think human psychology is too nebulous and qualitative with way too many factors to definitively "measure" how effective ads are. all they really know is (most of the time) buy ads, revenue goes up.

but there's a reason your personal data is so coveted by advertisers. if they can parse that you're an avid hiker from the millions of data points they collect from you (websites visited, geolocation data, other purchases, etc), then they can sell ads for $400 hiking boots specifically for you, that people who never leave their couch and order delivery from hungry howies every day would just ignore