Not only that, but ads pay for the otherwise free content. We used to have to trudge to the library, in the snow, uphill both ways, to pour over out of date books to try to find information. Or pay very high prices to have a librarian type searches into things like lexus nexus. Now we do this from home, for free. Not to mention stream film, download books, get college degrees, and so on.
Internet ads have transformed life as we know it, in a good way.
Reaching consumers is hard, even if you have the superior product. Facilitating such a transaction should make one proud.
The 'psychological exploits' are a marginal component, but again, why is it inherently bad for someone to feel good about using product x over product y, even if they're exactly the same?
Advertisements are more manipulative than informative. But the bigger point was that they are far less of a benefit to humanity than other things, yet they get far more resources allocated to them.
