The short version

Raja Rajamannar predicted on January 22, 2025: “Advertising as we know it is dead. The need for communication is still there, but it's not happening through advertising any more.” Verdict: Partially right. Partially right. Mastercard really did shift budget into experiential and sensory marketing, and interruption-first advertising keeps losing share to creator, retail-media and experience spend. But advertising as a…

Prediction by

Raja Rajamannar

On January 22, 2025

“Advertising as we know it is dead. The need for communication is still there, but it's not happening through advertising any more.”

Follow-up

Partially right. Mastercard really did shift budget into experiential and sensory marketing, and interruption-first advertising keeps losing share to creator, retail-media and experience spend. But advertising as a whole is nowhere near dead: global ad spend passed $1 trillion for the first time in 2024 and kept growing. The blanket claim outruns the evidence; the directional one stands.

From the High Caliber AI network — see the AI for PR module in the course.