How advertising machines broke the attention economy

In 2016, TV advertising was in trouble. People were canceling their cable subscriptions by the millions, ratings were slipping, and advertisers were pouring billions of dollars into digital platforms that promised bigger audiences than TV at a much lower cost. That April, Buzzfeed broadcast a live stream of two staffers in white coats and safety goggles wrapping rubber bands around a watermelon. The tension mounted as the rubber bands piled up, one at a time, hundreds and hundreds of them, sq...