Waste treatment for advertising?

Apparently there is a book about to be published that explains that 37% of all advertising is wasted and that most people who place advertising or pay for it have no idea what they're doing. According to Ad Age, the book, What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds, was written by Rex Briggs, a veteran market researcher and founder of the firm Marketing Evolution, and Greg Stuart, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

Of course others have been there beforehand:
Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half -- John Wannamaker (1838 - 1922)