The inconvenient truth about online advertising and social media.

Are brands really created by “branding campaigns”? Is there a single banner ad that was so brilliant or so effective that we all remember it? What has “display advertising” on the web become, if not the reign of large-scale, low-quality direct response?

What about our obsession with social media? Do consumers really want to have “conversations” with brands? What is the real value of a Facebook Fan? What are social networks if not private enclosures of the web and advertising platforms?

Who was Howard Luck Gossage, and why should we study his work? Why was he more successful with things “interactive” and “social” 50 years ago than anybody has been in our “digital” era? Were he around today, what would Gossage do?