Advertising is dead

It's kind of embarrassing when you think of traditional advertising. This splatter broad brush kid with a crayon approach for selling stuff to people. After more reading of the book the long tail it comes to my realisation how dead this industry (in the traditional sense of the word) is.In today's world we are bombarded by advertising is it effective anymore? Are we really going to buy a coke because we pass a coke sign on the way to work? Does this really affect us "subliminally (whatever the fuck that is)"? Or is that really a load of kodswallop.
The future in marketing relies on what Amazon and other sites like Netflix have been doing for a while now. Recommendation engines or more generically termed filter engines. What these do is tailor something with a more personal and yet aggregated touch to you. Bulk and splatter advertising approaches of the 80s and 90s of a bombarding and "shock and awe nature" are over. What's replacing them is the rating engines that get smarter and work out what you like based on what others like you have rated. While every person is different who would you prefer trying to sell to you someone with opinions closer to you and who liked the same stuff or some sleazy clown in a suit.