[Nadya]

Depending how the advertising is done - yes. Many campaigns that advertise for what are sometimes great causes rely heavily on emotional manipulation in their advertisements. Try watching just 10 seconds of this ad and tell me it isn't meant to be emotionally manipulative [0]. Or this other UNICEF advertisement [1] which is amazingly well made - but also very emotionally manipulative.

In my eyes - the only morally decent advertisement are advertisements that are solely education of a product or service you may need exists. Such as a boring infomercial without the manipulative sense of urgency "buy now and receive blah blah blah". But because these ads aren't manipulative of the human psyche, they would be terrible at driving sales to the product/service especially when competing with advertisements that are manipulative. Which is why nobody makes ads like that - they all rely on manipulation.

Advertisements, for centuries, have been a competition to see who is best at manipulating the human psyche - and I find that repugnant and immoral no matter the reason for doing so. Many advertisements today aren't to improve your life, but to fix flaws that don't actually exist but the company needs you to think they do exist so that you'll buy their "solution" to the often non-existent or heavily exaggerated problem. The best companies do this in subtle ways that many people don't realize. Memorable jingles, catchy slogans, smiling, happy, attractive people.

What are you waiting for? Choose happiness [2]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEtYsKCWnME

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEtI-MzRwkM

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1veWbLpGa78