Across the advertising industry, a quiet reckoning is underway — not over budgets, but over what those budgets actually buy. Graham Webster of Enth Degree, drawing on a provocation from former Mastercard CMO Raja Rajamannar, argues that the machinery of modern media buying has drifted so far from its purpose that the majority of spending may generate little more than the appearance of reach. The deeper question is not how much advertising costs, but how thoroughly the industry has allowed sellers to define the terms by which buyers measure value — and whether agencies still possess the will to