The present invention relates to advertising over a communications network comprising a plurality of interactive client subscriber sites interconnected with an advertising information server site. The attributes of a plurality of customers are stored in the form of customer attribute vectors c_k. The attributes of one or more role models are stored in the form of one or more role model attribute vectors i_j. A marketing function M is defined which maps the customer attribute vectors to the one or more role model attribute vectors such that i_j=M(c_k). At the interface advertising information server site interactive advertising displays are provided incorporating the one or more role models. An interactive communication link is established from the customer subscriber sites to the advertising information server site enabling customers to access the displays and to make purchases in response to the displays. The marketing function M is updated in dependence upon the customer purchases.