Online Advertising and the Dangers of "Short-Termism"

I have yet to come across an advertiser interested above all else in buying rating points or impressions. Advertisers advertise in order to make more money, it's as simple and as obvious as that. Of course audience data is an important step along that long road. Quite apart from providing a degree of accountability, not to mention newspaper headlines, the numbers produced help in decisions on where best to spend the money. But in our world this is a means to an end, not the end itself.