Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something similar happened to me with backpack zippers. It convinced me the phone is listening and serving me ads despite the technical explanations that it isn't. I was walking to work and my backpack zipper broke getting off the elevator. When I got to my cube I set my phone on the desk and said to my coworker, "damn, my backpack zipper just broke!" 45 minutes later I was in a meeting and checked my phone and backp…
Maybe your coworker searched for backpack zipper?
Or the ads were there before but ignored. Similar to the number 23 thing…