at&t, VZ = top advertisers

Of the Top 5 advertisers, consumer giant P&G is almost always 1st; then comes GM. The next 2 are RBOCs: at&t and VZ spent $2.2B and $1.9B, respectively, on advertising. Couldn't you have just lowered out rates instead?! And that is probably just bought advertising media, not inserts, yellow pages, and telemarketing. And that doesn't include the millions spent on lobbying or litigating. They waste a lot of money. If they used half of that on innovation, they wouldn't even need to bother with ads or lobbying --- because everyone would want the new technology!