Isn't that the thrust of the article though? They narrowed their ad spend to whitelisted sites and have not seen a drop in sales. If the major sports apparel company stopped paying for endorsements and saw no drop in sales, you might be tempted to conclude that those endorsements are not good investments.

I think the analogy is:

A company moved endorsement money from lots of lesser-known teams to a few better-known teams and their sales stayed the same.

Seems like it would be a pretty long term effect though, so the drop off might not be apparent yet.

The ever elusive brand exposure. Another scam of the ad industry.

it makes sense for a select few, airlines and perhaps an entry country and their tourism industry. that's about it