[stuart73547373]

>Can I take this a step further and say that advertising is the true problem here?

no? promoting stuff with a plausible chance of adding value to someone's life is not bad imho

the problem is the stuff that kills value, like smoking and gambling. not advertising in general. so yes advertising (the many) bad stuffs is bad if that's what you mean by "most things"

[spencerflem]

Most ads are not for something that adds value to your life. When was the last time you personally saw an ad that's anything other than a trailer for a piece of media, and was excited and happy to see it.

[recursive4]

Some argue it’s gotten worse due to recent tradeoffs between privacy and accuracy, such as the negative effect Apple’s ATT has purportedly had on Meta’s targeted ad efficacy.

[soerxpso]

> the problem is the stuff that kills value, like smoking and gambling

These are not the only things that kill value. Turn off adblock for a week and count the ads you see for quality products that you actually need, that you would not be worse-off for purchasing. Generally if something would actually add value to your life, nobody needs to trick you into buying it.

[chii]

> stuff that kills value, like smoking and gambling.

but you decided (for others) that this stuff kills value. Not all people would agree with you. And while it's pretty clear that smoking is harmful, the smoker might want it as it relieves stress or for whatever reason, and they're willing to make the health trade-off. Ditto with gambling.

[somenameforme]

I really don't think this is true. The overwhelming majority of ads are just predatory and exploit all sort of psychological cues and tricks, like false association, just to sell more Product. Coke is one of the largest advertisers in the world, and a perfect example of this. They regularly imply that extremely healthy individuals, the sort that would never touch a Coke in real life, are avid Coke drinkers, implicitly suggesting that if you drink Coke - you can also be like them.

This clip [1] where Coke managed to get a couple of bottles placed in front of Ronaldo during a presser is awesome. A visibly agitated Ronaldo places them aside out of the frame, grabs a water, holds it up, says 'Agua!' and the carries on. But Coke is so dependent on these false associations, that that one little event saw them lose some $4 billion in market capitalization! Imagine if advertising wasn't a thing, and people only associated Coke with the sort of people who regularly drink Coke. The world be a much better, and healthier, place.

And Coke, as scummy as they are, are one of the less scummy advertisers in the advertising world - such as it is.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nw7FOgOgtA