I can't speak for the parent, or anyone else for that matter, but it does not appeal to me to burn ingenuity trying solely to figure out how better to get people to buy stuff. It's an arms race, where you expend more effort simply for a better chance at winning a zero-sum game. I'd prefer to work on projects where, rather than fighting to capture scraps of consumer disposable income, I become the spring that sources a mighty river of created value.
Is advertisement a zero-sum game? I don't think so, if you figure out how to better match products with customers, you create value for everyone. This is what Google did in a big way.
Not all of us strive to be consumer whores. I personally have never set foot in a wal-mart or a target, and have not owned nor watched a television in over a decade, and hope to continue this trend in perpetuity.
