Somehow I don't trust your own judgment of your ability as a child, especially when it is in contrast with the experience of most people and the findings of researchers.
Anecdotal evidence is not evidence! Especially anecdotal data reported by the subject. All you are showing is a fundemental misunderstanding of scientific process.
Anecdotal evidence is evidence (hence the name). You just can't apply the usual statistical methods that assume the evidence was sampled perfectly randomly from an effectively infinite population. Empirical evidence rarely lives up to the theoretical requirements, either, but that doesn't stop science from progressing.
You personally might not be able to, but there is a lot of research that shows children can't always understand that they are watching an advertisement, and what that entails. That's why the US has lots of regulations regarding advertising to children.
I remember at that age understanding that ads are not truthful at a deep level and filtering them. I find it's much harder for me now. Everything seems like an ad now a days and I may not believe the message but having the money to pay for so many ads on expensive platforms gives me a different message. If a company can afford a superbowl ad it gives me the impression the product has resources behind it and I can assign a level of trust.
Both make a list of the naughty and nice boys and girls. One substitutes brimstone for coal, nebulous "eternal happiness" for toys, but they seem pretty similar to me.
Both are fictional, believed by a large demographic and don't instantly signal insanity, just gullibility.
Gullibility, which is what we were talking and why advertising to children is bad. If we started teaching our kids to do things like try to test for Santa they would be more likely to come to correct answers for the rest of their lives, and in general be less gullible.
You will not find a single person in America who believes advertisements are a good neutral source of information, yet they still run them. They run them ever for products everyone has heard of and probably tried at some point. Why do you suppose that might be?
It's all about name recognition. Ads work because they stick the advertiser's brand in your brain, along with some warm and fuzzy feelings. The next time you're hungry on the road, and there's a McDonald's across the street from a Burger King, whoever has your warmer and fuzzier feelings will win.
Sure, in some ways, we all did - though I think most of us just got disappointed in a product or two or finally realized the ads weren't realistic.
This wasn't the case with other things, though. I remember really liking Care Bears back in the 80's. My father was appalled when he took me to a movie - he said it was basically an add to get kids to buy the new line of toys. My brother, 11 years younger than I, had the same sort of thing with Power Rangers and then Pokemon. I don't have children and am not quite sure what the current modern version of this is, but I'm sure it is there. Adult versions abound. These aren't the things we can spot so easily, especially as children with little world experience.