Is advertising a way of manipulating or an important source of information?

We are all exposed to a lot of advertising especially on the internet. And of course, businesses spend a lot of money to create and distribute advertising. Before next class, I would like for you to discuss this question: Is advertising just a way of manipulating people to buy things they do not need or is it an important source of information that helps people make informed consumer decisions?

I don't think most people consider ads to be valuable. I read that in just one one year from 2018 to 2019the number of computers, tablets and mobile phones using ad blockers increased from 142million to 615 million.

People can find out a lot about products from advertising. There's plenty of evidence that people usually begin the process of making a big purchase by looking at ads and reviews. I have to go to another class right now, but I’m going to post later about an advertisement that gave me a lot of useful information.