This is so depressing. We're living in the future and it's awful.
Got a lot of ads for the Texas Lottery with Spanish audio.
(For example, it really doesn't matter whether you drink Coke or Pepsi. Those ads are just inflating the cost of the product; there are no more efficiencies to be had in the production of sugar water.)
Comparing against the baseline of terrestrial broadcast, this is a far better experience than before.
You are making the mistake of thinking that this is a zero-sum game. The product that makes the most money is not necessarily the worst one, it might actually just be one with higher margins or even an actually superior product that just lacks mindshare; in the end, buying it might still add value to your live.
When I buy an item I'm making a decision that the marginal value of that item to me is worth more than the marginal cost. If the ad is targeted, a transaction is more likely to happen. Transactions happen when both parties derive utility from them.
If you advertise only high profit items without concern for the probability of transaction, your audience will not buy anything or end up buying the same item from somebody else.
These systems are not for your benefit. They are meant to use any information they can to extract more from you.
Targeted advertising is not giving you better deals, but providing you with a greater mismatch between your expectation and the reality. You may get a better deal out of it, but that is an unintended side effect
A customer buying something isn't a zero-sum transaction. My default assumption is that the product that stands to make the most money from me is the one that would most benefit me. For example, the grocery store sells apples, which I love, and chicken gizzards, which I don't love. The product which I want most (apples) will stand to make the most money from me. If I didn't know that apples were for sale near me, or that a particular store had particularly delicious apples, I would benefit from that and so would they after I spent my money on them. Win-win, not zero-sum.
The bags come from the same orchard. Same tree. You paid for a sticker. The clerk just knows you make enough money not to notice because they have a dossier on every person in town.
Well, see, that's where things like cigarettes, liquor, and gambling just blatantly violate that assumption. Ads are psychological manipulation for the advertiser's benefit, hands down.