ORLY

Those are not avatars. Those are...yeah...not avatars in the way that the author of the article meant.

Another thing that we aren't factoring in is the dedication you have to give to successfully win reddit. That money can be spent on ads...or gaming the frontpage...but either way it has to be a bit more than "Hey mr. designer in India..here's our logo...here's our styleguide...here's the headlines we want to use....I need 25 variations of banner ads @ 728x90, 300x250, etc." Those ads are then used across the board on any website. Those ads can be re-used in 3 months, 6 months, a year. You can email Mr. Designer again and do a whole new set of retargeting ads. Once a campaign has been set, it can be reused and repurposed for everything. Your TV ads end up as YouTube prerolls. Your magazine add gets squished and de-whitedspace'd. It takes very little thought after "here's the campaign copy." With reddit, you really have to have a dedicated campaign for reddit.

I agree with all else you said though. I wonder if there are any case studies online regarding people who have ventured into reddit advertising.