Yes, exactly this. Advertising in all forms is explicitly attempting to co-opt your decision making capacity. My company wound it's way to being an ad-tech company (started as saas) before we sold and it just felt totally icky.

I've been advocating for heavy regulation of the advertising industry, not just online but everywhere, for the last few years. Not just industry and entertainment but the entire political system and journalism have been co-opted by advertising and sales practices.