When I look at the download page now, there are no ads (disclaimer: I use an ad-blocker and I use noscript). Furthermore, VLC is available from the Microsoft Store, so that you don't have to fetch untrusted executables anyway.
Here is what the official Videolan download page looks like on Windows Chrome without adblocker: https://imgur.com/a/ZWZdtk5
The VLC download is started in the background, but the "Download Now" buttons are highly misleading. This time it's Avast rather than "VLC Torrent Streamer".
Videolan should be ashamed using dark patterns to trick people into installing adware.
I just got the same ad they're talking about[1] -- you need to go to the Windows download page (as in, click download) and have your adblocker disabled.
