Something strange. So, radio advertisement, billboards, video panels, and absolutely any other type of advertisement is a scam that exists for few decades and still going good?
This is quite different than the current design of online ads, where which ad to show is only decided when the ad loads and reloads.
Not that it matters that much - online ads are a total scam anyway. Particularly google's search ads, which 9 times out of 10 is just a copy of the first search result - but now in a version where they get money for the click.
When buying internet ad space, though, the information asymmetry is vastly different.
I do recall it being common for internet ads to be sold directly like billboards back in the day, before the action model took over, especially for higher value sites that could be likened to the prime real estate of a billboard on a city square or key highway with their guaranteed literal traffic.
But such direct deals probably didn't scale well, and definitely left smaller sites wanting to earn some extra revenue in the dust. There was a time when ads weren't as shit as they are now - most wouldn't worry about a banner ad or two on their favorite forum.
I agree that it convenient to be able to see each ad information, but that doesn't mean that it should be this way.