The relation between advertising and art is a bit similar to that between war and technology. >If a company wants to spend $x million on paying artists, I find

The relation between advertising and art is a bit similar to that between war and technology. >If a company wants to spend $x million on paying artists, I find that a worthy thing to do. If the US army wants to spend a few million on "search and rescue" drones that might also seem like a worthy goal. But just like military money is ultimately spent to kill people (ahem, "project force"), advertising money is ultimately used to manipulate people. One could even argue that if the "technology" to do this is genuinely beautiful art, that exactly makes it worse. I realize I'm exaggerating a bit with this comparison, I don't mean to hammer on you while you gave a helpful counterexample :)