I sincerely hope so. I fervently believe that all advertising is, by definition, paid manipulation. As such, it is deeply immoral, despicable, and should be outlawed on the constitutional level! I also believe that this manipulation is the foundation of almost every evil in the western world, because it is the perverse motive that corrupts our democracy and our economy. The ability to manipulate masses of people to buy your idea or product using money allows those with money to dominate, not those who are competent or correct (either at politics or economy). The fact that our societies not only allow this but actively celebrate the biggest manipulators as the best of us (google facebook etc.) is beyond immoral for me. It's insane!

I also believe that anybody who calls out this sick game at the level of society would be cruelly ostracised by those in power, either in media or politics or economy. Still, we should voice this more often. We should make people rethink our societies.

Do you feel like you'll graduate to 'Political problems are not emergent individual problems, but an issue of rules. The rules of the political game are rigged to filter out competent people and only allow shallow ideologues to power'? ;)

This is an interesting counterpoint. On one hand, alexashka makes valid observations, but to what degree is the behavior (s)he is observing a result of high quality political leadership most anywhere on the planet? And if that could somehow be changed, might people's behavior suddenly change as well?