i count those things not as adverts, but as information sources. An advert is something that tries to convince you to buy _their_ brand of a thing, rather than informing you of the existance of a thing you didnt know about. Suppose there's a universal catalog which lists all possible products/services, then you'd have no need of the former, but the latter is still a zero sum game.
this is the distinction i'd like to make - branding advertising is the zero sum game i was talking about above. Product awareness is simply information - using an advert to tell me about a thing that i didnt know is not really advertising to me, but showing me that a certian music player is so much better, because it makes me hip and cool , _is_ advertising of the zero sum kind.
If i were to buy a music player, i want information, specs, and i'll choose based on objective comparisons. I don't want to, or need to take branding into account, and neither should anyone else! It's illogical!
And yet you do, even if you think you don't. There are hundreds of billions of dollars spent on branding because it works, it's human behavior to have preferences and emotions and tapping into that as a business is the opposite of illogical.