>"General Motors has paid us to tell you that ... ... ..."
Are we under the impression that people don't know that?
I think most people know what advertising is. I don't think that would change anything.
Very basic example nobody argues with. Did you know your local news station gets some stories to present as their own and they are paid to present them? You may, but many might find that to be a shocking revelation. I was maintaining cognitive accessibility in that example.
I don't think the news thing would surprise anyone either.
I think there's a weirdly patronizing approach that blames so much on advertising, and if by chance if folks got their way they'd be astonished to find that people make bad choices all on their own, and they know they do ...
I think it makes sense when people are quite literally inundated by ads. If you see a constant stream of advertisements, which thoughts are genuinely your own? What preferences would one have that haven’t been massaged in a direction by ads?
> I don't think the news thing would surprise anyone either.
People who you'd expect to realize this still read the news acknowledging everything they're till they get to a specific domain the news covers. A la Gell-Mann Amnesia.