Seth Godin has this post: Assuming that you have your audience’s full attention is dangerous.

On the other hand, David Ogilvy said in Ogilvy on Advertising that long ad copy and more detail always wins.

How do you reconcile the two in internet marketing? By approaching your ad strategy as the first three steps in a six step conversation: Make sure you get in front of the user when they’re interested, by using smart advertising strategies and, most important, smart search marketing. Use the right initial look and headline to grab attention. Then use longer, detailed copy to draw in the audience.

Claude Hopkins, the man who basically invented modern advertising, told his students to use samples, such as a free can of coffee. Why? So that you’d get the audience’s attention, get them to try the product, and open the discussion.

He wrote that in the 1920s.

So I don’t think this is a new problem…