I'm curious to know if DuckDuckGo promotes itself using privacy-invasive platforms. How much do they truly value privacy if they're willing to let others invade

I'm curious to know if DuckDuckGo promotes itself using privacy-invasive platforms. How much do they truly value privacy if they're willing to let others invade for them? Reason I ask is because strangely enough, after reading this article, I hopped on Reddit and saw a promoted ad for DuckDuckGo. That can't have been a coincidence...