Ask HN: Should we teach kids to avoid Ads

As long as we are living in a capitalistic world, we cannot do away with Ads completely. But I think there should be a balance. And as the 'forces' of capitalism wants to us as much ads as possible, we don't have any forces that opposes this. And I find Ads sneaking in more and more into our lives via different channels.

The danger that I see now is how oblivious people are to this fact. For eg. Most people consider Television as a means for THEIR entertainment. There was a time I used to believe that. But right now, I can only see it as a channel for advertising and the entertainment content is just used to bring you in front of it and keep you glued there. At no point in the course of my growing up, I had a reason to ask the question. "Is the TV in my house really for my entertainment?", and this I think is the most dangerous part. A missing awareness about what actually is going on. And how people does not see Ads and it's channels for what they are and hence are ok with them appearing in more and more channels..

Also there are cases where an Ad takes advantage of insecurities of a demographics to market stuff to them. I am from India and I know that people who can barely earn their living will spend money on Fairness creams that cost as much as a weeks food. The point here is not how the poor is exploited, but the huge influence such ads have on people (rich and poor alike) so that even someone who can barely earn their living ends up spending money to buy that stuff.

So my question is, should kids be taught about these stuff and teach them to avoid them as much as possible. I guess this will result in their increased well being (by reducing susceptibility to being taken advantage of their insecurities) and act as a checking force, at a personal level against the increasing prevalence of Advertising in our world..