Public companies aren’t disallowed from making long term investments such as building brand loyalty. You are excusing the braindead executives for their choice to burn their brand in exchange for some imaginary ad paycheck. Like I’m going to buy a branded pack of eggs based on an ad on my fucking fridge (and somehow that’s going to make them a ton of dough). I can’t get over how simple-minded and gullible the people running these companies are.
If you wanna skip some chapters and see where all of this ends up, go check out how Unity is doing after John Riccitiello fucked them.