The more you think of it, the more it seems to be totally expected. It's the advertising industry we're talking about. They're not exactly a paragon of honesty. On the contrary, I suspect everyone tries to bullshit everyone else. The few observations I made from working next to people in marketing & advertising supports that viewpoint.

EDIT: reminds me of that one story about A/B testing, which pretty much directly told us how adtech companies are bullshitting their own customers.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10872359

I highlighted the more interesting parts back then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10873226.