Yeah good points there, and I certainly didn’t mean to imply ads were historically better on the whole. Ads from a a century ago also featured a significantly greater amount of flat out lying about their products, especially when it came to medicines and “tonics”.

But even if we accept that their honesty has improved (dubious) I do think advertising today has become more intrusive, and the function of advertising is today is more about disrupting our focus than it ever has been.