[soared]

People always say that on HN because they think they are unique or immune to advertising somehow. Its not like advertisers toss out some ads and then you automagically go buy a new roof for your house. All advertisers do is see you own a house and send you some new roof ads. Your reaction is not "Oh I better go get a new roof from Steve's Roofs". Your reaction is 18 months from now you're searching for a new roof after a hailstorm, you see "Steve's Roofs" in a google search and click on it because you've seen the logo/tagline before. (Or maybe their is some latent brand awareness, you might associate Steve with trustworthy due to an ad but not realize it, etc).

With the AC.. that is due to a lack of data. They can't always match all of your devices to you, maybe you cleared your cookies etc. They missed that you bought it, and so as they see it you're still a very valuable prospect. IF there was more/better data that annoyance would be solved.