I always saw ads as a zero sum game. We all have limited dollars and attention. When you advertise, you might slightly change the allocation of attention and dollar to your product.

When everyone advertises, it is back to the same status quo. And when everyone stops advertising it ends up being the same.

I really hope more companies would stop advertising or at least question the value they are getting out of those money pits. Ads created some of most horrible companies the world ever saw (Google, Facebook).