I'll play devil's advocate here: While I understand you completely, I think a lot of these issues would be reduced if regulators played an active role on contr

I'll play devil's advocate here: While I understand you completely, I think a lot of these issues would be reduced if regulators played an active role on controlling what is being advertised/how it's being advertised and where... because at the moment it seems to be delegated to the platforms to police their own ad network. With that said, you also need to realize that with the advent of digital advertising many small businesses found ways to reach old and new customers at a small cost (now increasingly expensive, and therefore more prohibitive). Because you have to remember that prior to this, advertising was a luxury, and many of our childhood brands were so successful because companies like Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, Coca Cola, Mars, Mattel, Hasbro, etc had the control of the share of voice with their brands, and they controlled big chunks of share of shelves, with access budgets of millions. Imagine returning to a days where only an handful of brands were controlling the majority of media inventories and distribution/sales channels... I don't think that's a good thing. I don't have a solution for this to be honest, yet I think that reaching audiences shouldn't be limited to behemoths that have access to hundreds of millions in advertising budgets.