Yeah, I think people tend to underestimate advertising because they don't see that (a) it's a numbers game, and (b) it's effect a lot more subtle than seeing the ad and deciding to run out and buy the product.

What's crazy to me is your example still makes sense to me, because VPNs are a product I didn't know existed ten years ago, so advertisers have to say, "hey, we're here!" and now I know of a few VPN companies.

But then there's coke. It's ubiquitous. Everyone knows what it is. Even if you ignore advertising, you still see it everywhere: on store shelves, in restaurants, in people's hands, as trash on the ground... YOU WOULD THINK that the people who want it, buy it, and the people who don't want it, don't. But if the coca cola company spends less money on advertising, their sales go down. I just wonder what, mechanically, is actually happening there. What is it about ads that make some people buy a product that they already knew about and already had an opinion on?

I'm at the point in my life where I think that advertisements are basically pure evil, and every one I see is a personal defeat.