There was a great HN post a few years back about "chum", the taboola-style garbage ads and a breakdown on each one's tactic. For instance, one was talking about

There was a great HN post a few years back about "chum", the taboola-style garbage ads and a breakdown on each one's tactic. For instance, one was talking about why they show close-ups that you can't quite tell what they are, or show a picture of swiss cheese so that the holes trigger our instinct of Trycolophobia (I think thats what it was called). It's not honest communication when they resort to those scummy tactics to steal our attention.