Fair point. However, if you read the literature of the time. You will see the exact same methods. The missing bit they could not do was mass targeting. It just was not feasible to do. They knew very well how to do it though. One on one sales where it was more feasible to do and more of what you see today. It is not refined per se, but more simpler to do. My father sold life insurance for years. One summer I was bored and took the advert classes on how to sell (mid 70s). It is all very familiar to what is done today.

Ragebait is not really new. You can see the exact same methods used in 'yellow journalism'. That is not a new term.

You can also read old magazines and see 'reviews'. When they are little more than thinly veiled adverts for that thing. Take the show 'computer chronicles'. Neat show, showed off tons of tech. But it was one giant advert for whatever they were showing off that week.

The only real big change is volume and cost of targeting has dropped to near 0. I could give that realtime A/B testing of campaigns is new.

>The methods are much, much more refined and quite a bit better. You are being sold to and you may not realize it. Everything you interact with on social media (including reddit) has a good chance of being part of an advertising funnel. Even reviews and unboxings are usually advertisements.

100% concur with this. Conventional advertising may have not changed much but conventional advertising is now a much smaller proportion of marketing than it ever was.