Stompy,
You mentioned that you watch Adult Swim. Adult Swim is one of the most ad-saturated commericial blocks on TV. Most of the ads are for other Adult Swim or CN shows and that is how they have built Adult Swim into such a rating giant. They have formed a clique-culture around watching their blocks with the 'cue-card' style riffs between commericals and each show. They have found a unique way to make each watcher feel like they are being directly communicated to and it has worked as their ratings have nearly tripled since they switched to that style of pitching.
It is not that someone is forcing you to buy their item or to make a purchase that you don't need; it is more that everywhere we go, we are inescapably surrounded by media. Constant exposure to this stimuli yields a familiarity to the product or idea thus making a purchase or decision less foreign. Just being aware of the use of that media and that there is a specific purpose to it, is a big step in the right direction. You can form your own ideas about tinfoil hats and conspiracies.
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