My Advertising Is So Efficient It No Longer Works (2017) [video]
In this 2017 video essay, the speaker argues that highly targeted digital advertising has become so efficient at reaching only likely customers that it no longer achieves the broader brand awareness needed for effective marketing, essentially preaching to the choir while failing to attract new audiences.
Background
- The video is by CGP Grey (popular educational YouTuber, known for clear explanations of complex topics like voting systems, copyright, and productivity).
- The core argument: digital advertising (especially targeted/retargeted ads on platforms like Facebook/Google) has become so hyper-efficient at tracking and reaching people who *already know* about a product that it mostly stops working for its original purpose — *finding new customers*. It feeds existing demand rather than creating new demand.
- "It no longer works" is deliberately provocative: Grey argues that the entire feedback loop of modern ads (show an ad → person clicks → sale → algorithm deems ad "good") is broken because the viewer was almost certainly going to buy anyway. The algorithm optimizes for *last-click attribution*, not for *persuasion* or *awareness*.
- This 2017 talk predates major privacy regulations (GDPR) and the rise of privacy-focused ad models (Apple's App Tracking Transparency, etc.), making it a useful snapshot of pre-privacy-era thinking on ad efficiency.