When Ads Get More Care Than Editorials - A Media Reality That Hasn't Changed

May 25, 2026

"Far more thought and care go into the composition of any prominent ad in a newspaper or magazine than go into the writing of their features and editorials."
--Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964)

More than half a century ago, Marshall McLuhan issued this sharp insight - a critique that, if anything, has become more relevant today. His point was simple but unsettling: the advertisements we glance over are often more carefully constructed than the articles we intentionally seek out.

And now? It's only intensified.

Back in McLuhan's day, the print ad was already being elevated to an art form - designed to evoke emotion, tell a micro-story, and spark action in mere seconds. Full editorial columns, meanwhile, could be hastily written, under-edited, and underfunded. The same holds true in the digital age, but with a twist.

Today's online media landscape is dominated by limited word counts, clickbait headlines, shallow summaries, and so-called "articles" that are little more than rewritten press releases. Typos are common, context is often missing, and much of what gets published hasn't gone through anything resembling thoughtful editing. Fact-checking? Optional. Nuance? Rare. A proper closing paragraph? Even more rare.

Yet the ads - oh, the ads.

Programmatic advertising algorithms serve you visuals tailored to your behavior. Brands pay big money for custom photo shoots, layered video banners, AI-powered wordsmithing, and emotional targeting down to the second. Even a five-second YouTube bumper ad may have gone through dozens of iterations, testing, feedback loops, and cross-team marketing reviews before ever being published.

In terms of sheer time, energy, money, and creative attention, the ads still win.

So why this imbalance? As ever, it comes down to the bottom line. Ad space pays. Advertisers fund the platforms. Attention equals revenue, and therefore, attention must be captured. If it takes seven seconds to hook a reader, then those seven seconds go to the ad. The content you came for - news, reviews, features - is increasingly filler.

The modern equation looks like this:
Ads = profit
Editorial = traffic
Traffic = more ad views
Quality of editorial = optional

It's no surprise, then, that we now find major media outlets publishing incomplete articles, barely rewritten press releases, or AI-generated filler that passes as news. Some headlines even trail off mid-sentence or hide the real topic behind clickbait phrasing, hoping to get just one more impression before the reader bounces.

In this environment, thoughtful writing is seen as a luxury - an expense with a slow return. Meanwhile, advertising is a precision-calibrated investment.

The cost of this shift isn't just aesthetic, it's cultural. The public's trust in media is eroding, not just because of political bias or misinformation, but because the content is thin. Articles no longer explore ideas in depth. Reviews read like bullet points. Human stories are stripped of their complexity. And worse, the time-starved reader begins to believe this is normal.

That's not just a loss for writers - it's a loss for readers. For citizens. For culture.

McLuhan wasn't simply complaining about editorial laziness. He was pointing to a deeper truth: the medium reflects our values. When we prioritize sleek, shiny marketing over informed, reflective journalism, we reveal where our collective priorities lie.

This isn't about demonizing advertising. Great ads are an art form. But when we let profit-driven polish outweigh truth-driven content, we reduce writing to background noise and train readers to skim instead of think.

We can start small:
Support publications that invest in real editorial work.
Slow down and actually read longer, more thoughtful pieces.
Challenge media outlets to balance their books without bankrupting their credibility.

And as writers, we must keep crafting not just what sells, but what matters.

Let the ads be beautiful. Let the copy be clever. But let the writing be worth our time.

Because if the most thought-provoking thing in a magazine is the perfume ad, we've officially lost the plot.