That’s not necessarily true because you might not have known about them. Some ads can be informative and provide you with consumer surplus. For example I recent

That’s not necessarily true because you might not have known about them. Some ads can be informative and provide you with consumer surplus. For example I recently went to a concert based on an ad and it was a great time. I would have never heard about it normally. Actually the most manipulative ads are “brand” ads for things like Coke or BMW. These have no significant difference to their competitors so their only strategy is to manipulate you into associating them with more positive emotions.