Reality TV figures, YouTube stars, recording artists and others with huge followings among Millennials use their social media platforms as paid shills for brands, without disclosing the quid pro quo. This is not a matter of a few isolated bad actors.

The paradox is almost dizzying: we need a healthy press as a watchdog of democracy, and that press is being revived by interest in a regime doing everything in its power to dismantle democracy.

It's time for a gut check. There are those who saw the spot as somehow exploitative and/or trivializing of serious social issues, such as racial justice, religious freedom, women's rights, police brutality and abuse of super-slow motion. Once again -- in hindsight -- these are fair points. But this was not a failure of strategy.

In this semi-annual rite, Bob loses his patience with irrelevant press-release blasts and blasts right back.