"Cookies are dying. Consumers are blocking. Regulators are circling. Yet ad budgets are bigger than ever, even as advertising feels more invisible than at any point in history. Advertising began with a simple principle: Reach the right people with the right message. Somewhere along the way, I see this clarity as having given way to a surveillance economy, tracking every click, building bloated personas and serving ads that feel more like intrusion than inspiration. The result is ad fatigue on a massive scale."
"A study commissioned by Trade Desk within Southeast Asia found that nearly two-thirds of consumers feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of advertising, while "Kantar's Media Reactions 2025" reports a growing disconnection between where marketers spend and what consumers accept. Over-personalization, once marketed as breakthrough precision, is now described by many as unnerving, even a violation. Instead of relevance, we delivered noise. Instead of trust, we delivered avoidance."
Cookies are disappearing, consumers are blocking ads, and regulations are tightening while ad budgets stay large and advertising becomes less visible. Advertising shifted from simple reach-and-message principles into a surveillance-driven model that tracks clicks, builds inflated personas, and serves intrusive ads. That shift generated massive ad fatigue and declining consumer tolerance; studies show widespread overwhelm and a disconnect between marketer spend and consumer acceptance. Over-personalization and promotion-heavy performance marketing produce diminishing returns, prompting scrolling, blocking, and muting. Restoring relevance requires moving emphasis from identifying who users are to focusing on context: when and where consumers encounter messages.
Read at Forbes
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