Ask HN: Why are today's consumers not discerning what is ad and what is not?

Today's audiences are attached to brands more than ever. People, me included, watch several 1-2 hour informercials by Apple every year. We watch Marvel movie after Marvel movie where each one is advertising for the next movie.

It's like being trapped in a hamster wheel. Why have we as consumers become to addicted and depended on brands? Are these companies exploiting something innate in us? A need that needs to be fulfilled?