Mark Ritson is right about a lot of things. His weekly column in Marketing Week is a breath of fresh air in the marketing world, and full of insight and objective, clear, salient discussion on what's going on in marketing. However, his take on TV advertising, and in particular, its future, is overly optimistic.

Mark celebrated TV advertising's anniversary by declaring it still the 'most effective tool in a marketer's arsenal'. Yes, TV advertising doesn't yet deserve the death knells that are being sounded by digital paradigmists, but neither does it necessarily deserve the praise that Mark gives it.

Is TV advertising effective?

First, we need to understand what is meant by 'effective'. The term is somewhat nebulous. Is it related to revenues and profits? Brand development? Consumer reach?

Spend may be increasing, year-on-year, and set to reach $214.7 billion in 2018. Yet recent years have seen increasing concerns about TV ad reach, meaning, if anything, its effectiveness is declining, as costs rise per viewing of a TV ad.

Add to that the increasing disengagement from people from their TVs as they become more attuned to multi-screen media consumption. A study by Google and IPSOS touted that 77% of TV viewers simultaneously use other screens during their viewing. The legions of people flocking to Twitter to engage in hashtags related to their favourite shows is testament to that.