Totally. Advertising is fundamentally about distracting someone so you can put money in your pocket without regard to the impact on that someone. I have a lot

Totally. Advertising is fundamentally about distracting someone so you can put money in your pocket without regard to the impact on that someone. I have a lot of complaints about, say, McDonald's, but they make their money through giving people something of value to them. Advertising legitimizes the making of money in a way unrelated to value delivery. (The same is true about a lot of finance.) When you combine that with up-and-to-the-right numerical goals and standard executive incentives, over time you pretty much guarantee what Doctorow calls "enshittification". Delivering value becomes at best a side effect of the system.