> They aren't brainwashing you, at the end of the day the one in control of the credit card is still you.
Right, because we're all perfectly rational robots with full control of all of our emotions and impulses, and the advertisers totally don't employ cutting-edge research in psychology to manipulate us.
Exactly. The actual point of most advertising is to manipulate people into doing what the advertiser wants. Coca Cola doesn't spend billions on advertising because somebody out there isn't aware of Coke.
Even if I never fall for it, the stuff that's most "relevant" from the advertiser perspective is to me the stuff I have to do the most mental work to ignore. The more irrelevant it is, the less I notice it at all.
Right, because we're all perfectly rational robots with full control of all of our emotions and impulses, and the advertisers totally don't employ cutting-edge research in psychology to manipulate us.