Advertising used to be really complicated, as marketers were constantly trying to figure out ways to channel consumer's attention to the positive aspects of one's products.
You'd see multi-million dollar television campaigns for cars that would be touting meaning-less product statements such as the "Better visibility in low-light conditions than the Honda Civic."
What about gas mileage? Engine quality? Overall safety? Does better visibility in low-light conditions than the Honda Civic really do you any good? What if it has worse visibility than every other car in that category?
Nowadays, consumers just go online and read what other consumers have to say on Edmunds. Better low-light conditions don't buy you much when the brakes don't work and the transmission blows out after 20,000 miles.
Thanks to the Internet and an endless supply of information, bad products easily get exposed these days. Marketers can stop investing millions of dollars in trying to fool consumers.
Marketing has gotten a lot simpler. Just don't have a bad product.