07/29/2026
Marketing is dead…
Ok, maybe not dead, but quickly dying…
I think we're watching the slow death of marketing, the rise of lazy marketers and the accelerated decline of marketing due to the incorporation and reliance on AI.
Think about your own experiences.
You're watching , the same ad plays. Again. And again. And again.
You're streaming your favorite show, maybe on , , or wherever you binge.
The same commercial appears 4, 5, maybe 6 times during a single episode.
Marketers and analysts tell us advertising is more targeted than ever before.
So why does it feel less effective? Consumers are worn out and are actively fighting against marketing/ads.
The average consumer sees thousands of marketing messages every day.
Gartner found that 81% of U.S. consumers are actively trying to ignore and treat it as background noise. Additionally, about 52% report taking steps to block or avoid ads altogether.
In simple terms what does that mean? 4 out of 5 people are actively trying not to consume the marketing brands are paying billions to create.
Influencers promote products they don't use.
Reviews are bought, manipulated, or sponsored.
Algorithms optimize for impressions rather than trust.
A Clutch survey found that 93% of consumers regularly skip or block ads whenever they have the opportunity. Only 3% reported never skipping an ad.
That’s not an engagement problem. That’s a consumer rejection problem.
And every company is convinced that if they just spend a little more money, they'll finally break through the noise.
But what if the noise is the problem?
61% say excessive ad frequency makes them less likely to buy.
49% have chosen not to purchase from a brand after being shown the same ad too often.
50% say repeated ads are simply annoying.
I believe we're entering a period where trust is becoming more valuable than reach.
Where a product or brand's added value matters more than advertising volume.
Where customers buy because they believe you, not because your ad followed them around the internet for three weeks.
The brands that wins over the next decade won't necessarily have the biggest marketing budgets.
They'll have the strongest products, the clearest positioning, and the highest levels of customer trust.
Maybe marketing isn't completely dead, but we need to rewrite the playbook.
Consumers are just getting better at ignoring bad marketing. And there is a lot of bad/lazy marketing right now.
In your opinion, what has had the biggest impact on declining consumer trust.
?, Algorithms?, Endless advertising?, Or brands simply to deliver on their promises?
Curious where others think the problem is
The platforms?, The agencies?, The brands?, Or the consumers themselves?
