Hey, I'm was only kidding. Seems to me this thread could use some levity. The positions seem to be firmly entrenched and it looks like we've settled into a long war of attrition.
From another standpoint, I would imagine that virulent advertising is the very definition of successful advertising. Me, I only object to stupid, nauseating, horrid advertising. In North America, as far as I'm concerned anyway, that describes the majority of it. Which fact causes me no end of dismay, disgust, despair. It speaks ill of our culture, that we should permit such dreck to be visited so freely on us all. It's as if we lack imagination and character. Numbed to the very roots of our neurons by dumb-@ssed, predictable, useless drivel masquerading as sales technique.
Advertising may be something that business can't do without, but it's also a pox on society. In other words, I just can't see it as an either/or proposition. It's wonderful and obscene all at once. When it's brilliant, I can only applaud it and admire its inventors. When it sucks - when it's mawkish and shallow and insultingly, blandly despicably brain-dead, I despise it and sicken at the thought of how easily such stains spread.
As the saying goes, your mileage may vary.