Yes! Contextual Targeting (target based on what I am reading) could work, although the industry seems to be clinging to Behavioural Targeting (target based on who I am). This will become more important for Open Web due to the 3p cookie constraints, regulatory changes etc..., but Google/Amazon/FB are less likely to be impacted.

In fact Contextual Targeting predates the current approaches, but it became less important once advertises/adtech companies started preaching the thinly veiled idea of using behaviourism to trigger conversions/less products.

Changes like this are slow to introduce due to technical and (mainly) structural/cultural issues in the Advertising Industry, but that’s a topic for an entire essay/series of blog posts.

Source: I work in AdTech and deal with privacy/the ethical impact of programmatic, content monetisation models. Opinions obv. mine.