I understand that's the popular narrative, but that's not really the main point of targeted ads.
There's an old saying in advertising: "I know I'm wasting half of my advertising dollars. I just don't know which half".
The main point of targeted advertising is to avoid wasting money showing ads to people who will almost certainly not purchase your product, and redirect the money to ads shown to people who are more predisposed to purchasing your product.
Examples of the former include showing ads for Depends to teenagers, or for McDonalds happy meals to the elderly. Examples of the latter would be gaming PCs for people who own lots of video games.
I think you're both saying the same thing. Ads are manipulative and by targeting they are only more effective at said manipulation. Because most of the people who it would not work on are excluded.
There's an old saying in advertising: "I know I'm wasting half of my advertising dollars. I just don't know which half".
The main point of targeted advertising is to avoid wasting money showing ads to people who will almost certainly not purchase your product, and redirect the money to ads shown to people who are more predisposed to purchasing your product.
Examples of the former include showing ads for Depends to teenagers, or for McDonalds happy meals to the elderly. Examples of the latter would be gaming PCs for people who own lots of video games.