> Actually, if we're going to get into this nitpicky level of semantics, none of the words "cleverly, unscrupulously, artful, unfair, insidious" mean "deceit" o

> Actually, if we're going to get into this nitpicky level of semantics, none of the words "cleverly, unscrupulously, artful, unfair, insidious" mean "deceit" or "deception". "insidious" is actually a synonym of "deceitful" [0]. You could still argue that advertisement is insidious (which I would by and large disagree with), but the previous poster's point about manipulation and persuasion being different still stands. [0] https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/deceitful https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/deceitful