If a person needs a product or service, generally they can just go out and buy it. Advertising, whether or commercial or political, is really about exploiting psychological vulnerabilities in order to make people act against their own best interests. The promise of happiness if you buy this or that project, a momentary dopamine rush that serves to mask a real problem just long enough to set the mark up for their next unnecessary purchase. I wouldn’t go so far as an outright ban but I would regulate that all ads, on and offline, are pure text only, standard font, no targeting and lying in an ad to be a crime, just facts about the product only.

I consider myself to be a capitalist but this is a public health issue. Ad companies including Facebook and Google are the tobacco companies of the modern day.