I don't agree with this conflation of labelling and signage with advertising, to the benefit of the latter. It's not the same thing at all.<p>The milk carton has a label so that you know what is inside it. If you were to put the same graphic on a billboard, does that give you useful information about the billboard? Of course not: the advertisement just attempts to influence the decision you will make when shopping for milk in the future.<p>Likewise, it's one thing to put a store's logo on the building containing the store, and quite another to put it on a billboard, newspaper, or a TV spot. The sign on the building tells you what's in it, which is useful if you are looking for that store; the advertisement hopes instead to implant a desire to go look for the store, which may not otherwise have occurred to you.<p>Attempting to create a desire for goods or services people might otherwise never have wanted, in hopes of getting money from them they might otherwise not have chosen to spend, does not seem like it is doing any favors for the people being targeted. While a milder sort than many other forms of evil, I do think advertising qualifies.