From the days of print's literacy divide to television's unifying spectacle, advertising has danced a complex ballet of influence and identity, a vessel for mass consumption to niche identity. Here is the next stop on our journey, from mass culture to one-to-one personalization, to how the end of the cookie era might herald a return to a shared cultural narrative that fosters human connection.

Our journey to hyper-segmentation, a divided culture enabled by the cookie, and back again begins here.

HBO Max’s $80 million commitment from advertisers in the upfront for its forthcoming ad-supported option suggests there’s plenty of room for ad-supported streaming. And let’s face, in order to get enough reach to impact business objectives, brands need to reach far outside the confines of linear. But it also suggests a bigger challenge to meaningful reach the current streaming ecosystem posses.

This week Google's David Temkin said that they don't plan on developing or using alternative identifiers. No more new tricks to tracking and targeting audiences. What does this mean? Has Google decided this to enhance its image as a good corporate citizen? To ante up on the initial "don't be evil" ethos the company advocated? To be proactively compliant with the growing regulation governments seek to impose of use of personal data? Or does this just mean they’ve got optics on enough of the media universe to effectively own it?