Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree. A large advertising budget will win more eyeballs but that doesn't meant a shitty product will have a free reign. A product has to work hard to justify its value. Yes, marketing and advertising is misused to make people pay more for the same thing, but that doesn't mean that chief benefit of advertising, which is discovery, is lost in the process.
I would keep ads. But I would prefer if advertisers are not allowed to lie or make unverified claims on ads. I would perefer to be able to take an advertiser to court for the claims made. That still leaves a lot of room for word play and weaseling ..."upto 80% improvement in blah", but better than nothing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_Standards_Authorit...
There are laws and guidelines stating that claims made in ads have to be backed up, or at least not misleading and there are companies who've been fined or forced to take down ads because of it.
Whether it works well is another question though.