Our worldviews seem so completely different that we're probably talking past each other.
Case in point: I don't know how to respond to someone who requests data to establish that advertising is based on manipulation. You may as well be speaking Martian to me. (My immediate response - after sputtering - is, more or less, "It's advertising. Look at some.")
Let me stress, I'm not saying this as a put-down or any kind of argument in proof of anything. I'm simply trying to express in words my jaw dropping when I read your response.
Advertising is just "information". :/ and information 'manipulates' people who consume it. But I'm not sure why you consider that a bad thing.
Probably about half the posts on HN are 'adverts'. They are posts that have a message, urging us, the readers, to consider this information and possibly act on it. That's an advert.
Your previous point "Ads often mislead people"...
News often misleads people. People often mislead other people. It's not unique to advertising by any means.
