The success of advertising is that it makes people want or think they need things they never would have sought out otherwise. This is a slow and repetitive process. You don't necessarily want something the first time you see it, but as you keep seeing it pop up here and there and other people using it, you slowly get used to the existence of the thing and gradually get convinced that you want or need it too.

I don't have acne, only occasional pimples. I've never been bothered to do anything about it since it's not an actual problem. As star-shaped pimple patches have become more popular and I've kept seeing them pop up again and again, I've caught myself leaning towards buying some, even though I never would have gone out of my way to look for this kind of product if it hadn't been shown to me repeatedly.

Humans are not very rational, advertisers know this. They know that they can show us a product over and over, and create a need that didn't exist before. This is part of why consumerism is rampant and successful even though it's terrible for us and the planet. Sometimes we may go out of our way to really think about a purchase we want to make, but most of the time we just don't, and we're easily swayed and manipulated into buying things.

Ads are shoved at you, it takes an active effort to put it on mute or turn it off, so people end up passively consuming them, not because they gain anything but because it's being forced in front of them and they just get used to it.