What does an advertiser actually do?

What are the pros and cons of attention-minutes from the point of view of a prospective or current advertiser?

• As e.g. in 's new initiative, ?

• Answer:

  pro - advertisers have been shown to be gimmick-friendly con - it's easy to measure how long a person is at a page / site; not new at all. But that is no proof of 'attention' - and in upworthy's case, the opposite applies. They use so many pop-ups, overlays and other visual assaults on their visitors, that I always open an upworthy page** in a new tab, but give it a few minutes to settle down before clicking all the close / close / close buttons to get through to the content. **and because I'm aware of their tricks, I rarely visit anyway, though they manage to get idiots to share their links all over!