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Purpose-In all mass media advertising, the increasing advertising to editorial ratio is causing audience inattention and consumer complaints. The usual solutions are more creative advertising or better hiding of the messages within the editorial content. This discussion aims to describe the real solution, first predicted by Howard Gossage five decades ago, which requires understanding the problem in historical perspective and maybe a shift back to some older practices. Design/methodology/approach-Uses a historical perspective plus the wisdom to Gossage to point out the potential salvation and future for effective advertising. Findings-More effective advertising would mean that there would be less of it. Originality/value-Abuse of audiences by intrusive advertising lowers the effectiveness of the entire communications form. For better advertising, there should be less of it and more targeted both in placement and content. This offers a more realistic statement of how advertising can maximize its persuasive power in the future.

Self-regulation programs deter many advertising practices, but there are inherent limitations to its power in the United States. U.S. media vehicle managers' advertising acceptance policies may influence advertising content, but their decisions often are focused on priorities other than consumer protection. This article describes the power limitations of U.S. selfregulation and media advertising acceptance policies, showing how self-regulation alone is unable to fulfill the public policy goal of discouraging false advertising during government deregulation. A dvertising self-regulation programs are often presented as evidence of the decreasing need for govemment involvement. Repeated descriptions of business-run programs imply that self-regulation alone, including the "clearance process" by which media vehicles decide what advertising would be published or broadcast, could adequately limit deceptive advertising, [e.g.. Market

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Most discussions of covert marketing stem from three basic statements: (1) People are generally skeptical of any business-provided sources of information, so publicity or even random endorsements by strangers on the street might provide consumers with more persuasive sales messages; (2) advertising creators repeatedly say that they need to “break out” from the increasingly cluttered mass media environment; and (3) news reports of any pervasive marketing activity include a direct assertion, or at least an implicit presumption, that business managers do it because they know it “works.” Management decisions to use any covert marketing tactic are driven by the first two beliefs, and public policy worries of its improper or deceptive influence on consumers flow from the third. However, most covert marketing efforts are undertaken with professional uncertainty of whether anything really works as they create new areas of consumer skepticism and even more commercial clutter.