We’re saturated in advertising. Online, on billboards, flashing on sidewalks – iSpace in Japan plans to project ads on the moon by 2020.

But advertising is no longer a robust industry. Consumer distrust and ad-killing technology have frayed it into hostile camps with uncertain futures. Still: if you’re not in the business, why should you care?

Because, Ken Auletta says: no advertising means no media.

Auletta adds to his long career as a savvy observer of American business and communication with Frenemies: The Epic Destruction of the Advertising Industry (And Why This Matters). Auletta is uniquely positioned to probe this latest turn in a key industry. He’s penned the "Annals of Communications" column for The New Yorker since 1992; he’s profiled the greatest influencers of media both traditional and digital, including Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, and Ted Turner.

Ken Auletta joins KLF’s journalist in residence Angie Coiro for her This Is Now series, for an evening of wide-ranging conversation about media, advertising, and its role in the life of us all.