I actually majored in marketing in college so I am aware of most of the things you mentioned here. It's all about getting your product/brand in front of the consumers' eyes and now they have several medium to do that. Yes, this is what keeps most of the stuff free and it is something we have all reluctantly agreed to. Until a better model comes up, I think we will have to tolerate the insane amount of ads that we are exposed to every single day.