I don't actually take sides on the question of if the URL should be formatted as it is. It's almost too ingrained in my mind at this point to seriously consider other forms.

I would say my biggest criticism of it is it's rather intolerant of human error. A single mistyped character, and you are not going to the website you intend. I think that's the reason searching for something on Google can actually be a better experience than trying to figure out the URL directly.

To your advertisement point, there was a long history of companies including the http:// and www in their ads. There's always this of course too: http://i.imgur.com/cfTxpd2.jpg