>>Dragan,
>>
>>>>>Interesting church specifications: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/21/apple_v2_analysis/
>>>>
>>>>S'alright. Costs are built in to the sale price of the product :-}
>>>
>>>Which is why I just love it when I find a good product where nearly no budget was (in)appropriated for advertising - so I know I'm not paying for that waste.
>>
>>To be honest, I'm only interested in the ROI ratio. Whether the owning company wasted money or not is in fact irrelevant to me.
>
>
>Buying advertised products helps the advertising industry. Then their competition buys more advertising to counter them. It's like a weapons race. Everybody has to pay because everybody else does. Or so the advertisers want you to think.
>
>It works, inasmuch as most of the people believe it does. This belief is the only major success of the advertisers.

Conspiracy theories everywhere! Some of your core views may be clouding your understanding. Advertising exists for a simple reason: it works. If you have something to sell and don't advertise, how will people know it exists? Maybe you have the wherewithal to ferret out products from free internet sites, but most people don't. Please understand that I am not saying I think all ads are great. Just that they have a legitimate business function.

Happy new year. It won't be many more hours for you. And may you be our resident curmudgeon again in 2013 ;-)