infested with ads

yes: ads are the online equivalent of roaches

Other people: not using adblockers

Me: "How can you live like this?? To me this is an unacceptable standard of living"

Ah fuck I actually don't have an argument for this one I've heard friends and family quote that shit

I mean I think it is a game ... Maybe? Something on mobile?

I know what it is, but I cringe at ads and am reluctant to buy anything that has been advertized to me

(Although this is nowhere near the behaviour of the average person, allegedly autism makes ads less effective because we are rational)

I should make a formal "The List" of products not to buy and put advertizers who get past my adblocking there

And yet I don't know a single person who has ever played it.

To be fair if a friend said "dude check this game called raid shadow legends" I would download it.

Not anymore. Intrusive ads made me automaticaly negative to the game. I would need at least 3 friends to say that now.

Hell I noticed I was reluctant to buy a pest spray recently because its brand was called "raid."

The problem is targeted ads allow for really good data reporting. It's really easy to show your ad dollars went to x million views with 98% of the audience in at least one of your demographics, and you had a Y% click through rate and a Z% conversion rate. This can make it look like it's really effective, but it's hard to say that it wasn't some other advertising that got them there and the targeted spend was wasted.

Advertisers know a lot of their spending is wasted, but knowing which parts are actually a waste is pretty difficult.

Ads aren't just verbal, they are also visual. A "strong brand" would be instantly recognizable even if you don't know the language at all.

E.g. you probably almost immediately know what this is, without even knowing the alphabet:

That's kind of the point, advertisements are intentionally designed as brain worms which interact with deep parts of your brain and get you to instinctively associate them with something (ideally positive, but even general awareness is beneficial to the brand).