It's not about smart or stupid

Where did I say it was? Different people are allowed to think in different ways, live their lives however they want, and take their decisions on a whim... or not.

ads use various mechanisms to manipulate you

Fun fact, I used to work in ad design for some time, pretty sure I know the basics.

I can even tell you a trade secret: when an ad for product A convinces 20% of the people to buy it instead of product B, while the rest buy them at random... the ad is a huge success! Now 60% of people are buying product A, with a market share 50% larger than the competition! It means you can increase markups 200% or more and still have revenue soar even as most people switch to product B.

Here is a great German video on the topic

That video keeps talking about the input (ad watching) effect with a mindless output (product selection) action.

I keep telling you the input effect is irrelevant when the output action is not mindless... none of which has anything to do with whether an ad "works" or not.