An advertisement interrupts a story while asking to become part of your next decision.

The interruption is the small cost, and the real request is larger. An advert wants a place in your thinking later, at the moment you choose between one thing and another, and it pays for that place by breaking into something you were enjoying. Most of the influence happens after you have stopped paying attention, which is why it rarely feels like influence at all.

The next time you catch yourself wanting something specific, try to trace where the want came from. If you cannot find a reason of your own, it may have been supplied. That is not a failing, only worth knowing before you spend.