Back in economics class they taught me that advertising is needed to keep commerce going.
Now in the past few years the people who have lots of money to spend have gotten things like tivo and DVDplayers, so they watch TV without looking at the advertising. If you are watching something you recorded you can fast forward thru the commercials. They also have satelite radio so they don’t hear radio advertising.
I would think that the result of this would be consumers will stop buying crap they don’t need, because the advertising is not reaching them.
Therefore there is less commerce.
While witches were burned in Europe, in America this never happened. In Salem a few witches were hung and a warlock died when they put to many stones on his chest.