"We always think of advertising as this thing that works on other people, for all the stupid people who follow ads on TV, but they obviously work to some extent

"We always think of advertising as this thing that works on other people, for all the stupid people who follow ads on TV, but they obviously work to some extent and they work to the disturbing extent on all of us and it's something we must work to overcome." I've heard this alot. But, I happen to know it doesn't work well on me at all. I know this, because I can create a pie chart of all my spending and show you that a very tiny percent of it is products I've ever seen advertisements for (Most of my spending is on products that don't have advertisement - not that I'm against ads, it just worked out that way). But, why does he say it's something we should work to overcome? If you are making smart purchasing decisions as a consumer or business, then there's no need to "overcome advertisement". On the contrary, it can point out products you might rather buy - although this rarely happens because advertisement still sucks. If you are smart about your spending, then advertisement isn't the problem. The problem is all the bad products we're forced to buy because there's no alternatives and very limited competition: ISPs, Utilities (electricity, water, garbage), Housing.