Smart People are Brand Insensitive

I was listening to an Information Security-related podcast and this came out as an off-topic anecdote, but it struck me as an important thought for marketers. An experienced ad-driven podcaster once asked his team why they were running car ads instead of ads for related (high-tech) products. The answer was that "most companies think smart people are brand insensitive" and that:

Brand is the Refuge of the Ignorant

The implication is that its not worth running brand ads in forums inhabited by smart people. I'd love to see the related research on that. I have seen examples of this in the real world, but brand advertising can be so powerful, its hard to think of it as ineffective just because an audience is smart.