A scary version of this is driven home to me when I go to Washington DC and see all of the very expensive billboards at commuter stations near the Pentagon advertising fighter jets and other military equipment.

It scares me every time because they wouldn't be splashing out the big bucks for those billboards if they weren't effective, and I absolutely don't want the military (or any other entity engaging in major expenditures) to be making those decisions based on billboards.

AKA the Beltway Bandits [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltway_bandit

> I worked in a place where the owners were very susceptible to airport billboard ads.

This explains why airports are entirely covered in ads that seem to be aimed at C-level execs only (nobody else gives a shit).

This is why I shudder whenever I see a Workday ad during a football game.