So the author was anti-advertising as a consumer, but now is pro-advertising as an advertiser. Sounds about right.
I’ve grown up close to a sewage treatment plant and have been taken on a couple hours’ tour of it in middle school. And what do you know, while there is a faint odour in the air (much weaker than, say, near a barn or a stable, but it’s there), it’s one of the most sparkling-clean, meticulously organized workplaces I’ve seen before or since. I’ve been to chemistry labs with worse plumbing and more clutter than that, let alone industrial facilities.
I mean, it’s not that surprising in hindsight—if it’s clean everything or drown in literal shit, you bet it’s going to be clean. But it’s definitely not what I expected. (Probably helps they didn’t get their funding or wages cut while the surrounding country was falling apart, chemistry labs and all, for the same reason.)
But there are differences to the plants, I think you can make them enclosed and allmost smell less. But the one in my area does not have that tech and they stink.
The saddest part of this for me is that there are some incredibly talented people wasting all their energy making ads for oil companies and health insurers. Though, I suppose that happens everywhere... everyone needs to make a buck.
I think of it as a filtering function. Many people go in. But the ones who stay are the ones ok making a living from manipulating folks to do whatever people with money want.