Comment by buboard

There is one part of the anti-advertising rhetoric which has to do with the fact that we spend so much time online and advertising is very visible there - after all Google, an advertising company, is the largest and most important internet company. That's unfortunate of course. There is another part though that is not just fed up with advertising, but comes from a certain trends towards protecting "my safe space". It's more prominent in the latest generations and it's a knee-jerk reaction to anything that might spread speech that is not explicitly desired (not just acceptable). It's the same aversion that sometimes makes people intolerant to their neighbors who don't share their own views. I think the article similarly slid quickly from advertising to all forms of manipulation, forgetting that paid advertising (pamphlets) is what enabled a number of positive revolutions in societies, from martin luther to french revolution to the bolsheviks.