As I was watching a football game last weekend, I noticed an advertisement projected on the field much like the yellow first down marker. The advertisement was unsettling at first. What’s next? Player’s celebrations may become sponsered by an insurance agency, or a quarterback’s audibles will have the brand of a pizza company.

The scary part is these advertisements work. Whether we like to admit it or not, we are more likely to grab a Coca-Cola instead of an RC cola and will pick Campbell’s soup over the generic brand.

In general, are these advertisements bad?

The rise of the internet this past decade has shown our society how beneficial advertising can be. The Internet provides free services, like Hulu, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Gmail and more, for the world.

While there is no upfront cost, the companies must earn money, as the services require huge capital to run. These companies need to get paid somehow or else the services won’t be free for long.

Advertising is the answer for these companies. Advertising allows Facebook to make money by selling space to the advertisers while consumers can still receive the service for no monetary cost. The only cost to the consumer is being exposed to these ads.

That is the price we pay for our free services. If you don’t like being advertised to, then you can buy the premium version of the site or don’t use the site at all.

Advertising supports the internet. Without it, sites would be forced to charge money to view its content. We take these free services for granted and are quick to complain about a 30 second commercial. Advertising is far from perfect, but it is a necessity for the Internet.