Let me rephrase. Someone advertises to you because they expect something in return. Coca-Cola advertises to you because they expect you to buy coke. If you're t

Let me rephrase. Someone advertises to you because they expect something in return. Coca-Cola advertises to you because they expect you to buy coke. If you're too poor to buy coke, you're not useful to them. Joe's political campaign advertises to you because they want you to hate Bob, or be scared of those other guys, or whatever. This will help put Joe in charge, which is good for Joe and potentially bad for you, but it doesn't necessarily come out of your pocket. It comes out of the pockets of Joe and his friends. That might be taxpayer money, but you might not be the taxpayer paying for it. It might be private money from religious people who want gay marriage to be illegal. You pay for it with freedom, but not with money. My point wasn't that there's a free lunch here. My point was that there are other mechanisms at play, costs of advertising that don't translate directly into cost of goods and services you buy.