[aikendrum]

The issue with this is that advertisements don't exist to answer a question, or provide useful information. They exist to sell a product - whose efficacy, usefulness or appropriateness to the buyer is orthogonal to the effectiveness of the advertisement. Anything can be advertised, from a crooked demagogue to a placebo herbal remedy. The only difference is the budget and the regulation. Advertising is not about the spread of knowledge, it's about the promotion of a good or service that's being sold, period.

[skybrian]

Although some advertising is fairly useless or harmful, this ignores a lot of gray areas. For example, companies write interesting and useful blogs to both inform people and sell product.