The lesson from that is that customers are more likely to trust ads that come from the marketplace, not the sellers. The original point is very good and can be extended a bit: Customers don't hate ads, they hate modern advertising.
Obviously, the marketplace does have some incentive to lie, because they want you to buy something rather than nothing, but they certainly seem less biased. Especially when it comes to relatively fungible goods, they don't care which DVD you buy so long as you buy one, they don't care if product X is way better than Y or about as good as Y, so long as you buy one of them. Unless it's their own product or a very unique product, most goods are relatively fungible from the marketplace's perspective.
Now lets hope the marketplace doesn't secretly sell ad space, disguised as their own "recommendations". It would probably be completely against their best interest to do so, but if a lot of cash were on the line, well, who knows. (They risk their reputation, but if the replacement was plausible, how would they get caught?)
Obviously, the marketplace does have some incentive to lie, because they want you to buy something rather than nothing, but they certainly seem less biased. Especially when it comes to relatively fungible goods, they don't care which DVD you buy so long as you buy one, they don't care if product X is way better than Y or about as good as Y, so long as you buy one of them. Unless it's their own product or a very unique product, most goods are relatively fungible from the marketplace's perspective.
Now lets hope the marketplace doesn't secretly sell ad space, disguised as their own "recommendations". It would probably be completely against their best interest to do so, but if a lot of cash were on the line, well, who knows. (They risk their reputation, but if the replacement was plausible, how would they get caught?)