Sep 11, 2026 · 12 min · 8 segments
Madison and Wall's Brian Wieser and Luke Stillman digs into how the advertising business really works. Subscribe for analysis, insight and more about advertising, media and technology trends.
Brian WieserHostYou know, there have been COVID stimulus checks and stuff in the past that have impacted the economy and the ad economy.
And it's totally normal to buy votes effectively or have giveaways of this nature.
And it totally won't contribute to inflation to add a trillion dollars of one year deficit.
I feel like consumers are structurally depressed in the sentiment surveys, but keep spending.
It highlights why advertising is mostly independent of consumer activity in aggregate.
It's one factor that informs budgeting choices, but far from the most important.
You know, there have been COVID stimulus checks and stuff in the past that have impacted the economy and the ad economy.
And it's totally normal to buy votes effectively or have giveaways of this nature.
And it totally won't contribute to inflation to add a trillion dollars of one year deficit.
I feel like consumers are structurally depressed in the sentiment surveys, but keep spending.
It highlights why advertising is mostly independent of consumer activity in aggregate.
It's one factor that informs budgeting choices, but far from the most important.
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