The problem with the next media epoch -- the one we are living through now -- is that we may be giving up more than we planned or wanted to, namely our own agency.

Fun fact: I actually struggle with headlines. But when I began drafting this column after reading "The New York Times" column about one of its writer's conversations with Microsoft's new AI-powered chatbot "Sydney," this one just came to me.

Five years after Rishad Tobaccowala made the bold prediction that the supply of consumer ad exposure would decline 30% or more, it has actually increased. Nowadays, he notes the future also is elastic.

Forced topicality aside, Wieser makes some excellent points about the nature of the ad biz, and especially why the clients of big agency holding companies don't "do" local media buys. Or at least, why those agencies don't advise them to.