The article argues that advertising is often misunderstood as persuasion or information when one of its most important effects is memory retrieval. Ads can make a product, brand, or category easier to recall when a buying situation arises. Recent research on “ads as cues” shows that advertising can increase demand among habitual users and even spill over to similar competitors, as when one cola ad reminds consumers of the broader cola category.

The piece uses this mechanism to clarify brand versus performance marketing. Upper-funnel ads may not create immediate action, but they can make later search, sales, or product interactions more effective by making the brand more retrievable. The measurement challenge is therefore about the estimand: a brand-level experiment can estimate marginal lift, but not what advertising does to the full competitive memory environment.

Earlier this year, John, a seasoned professional with a major firm, decided it was time for a leap. The stock market had been climbing steadily, financial headlines were full of optimism, and investor sentiment seemed to signal a revitalized economy. And John was getting increasingly tired of feeling left out. So, convinced that growth had returned, he left his stable job to join a consumer–facing start‑up.

Six weeks later, John was unemployed.

At first, I laughed.

The idea that a grocery store cake could spark a viral meltdown felt like classic internet absurdity. When I read that Whole Foods had quietly altered the recipe of its beloved Berry Chantilly cake, I chuckled at the idea of social media users crying betrayal over a dessert.

Almost immediately, though, I felt something else: inspired. The public outcry worked. Faced with customer backlash, Whole Foods reversed course and reintroduced the original recipe. A multibillion-dollar enterprise had changed direction, not because of lawsuits or legislation, but because regular people noticed a change they weren’t okay with and refused to let it slide. That’s no small thing.