> When was the last time you bought something because of ads?

The last major purchase (>$100) I've made because of an advertisement was a ROG Phone 3 (two of them, actually) late last year. I had not ever heard of it before seeing an advertisement for it, and upon looking it up it seemed like a really good option.

The last one full stop was a billboard advertisement for a block of chocolate with a flavour that I know I like from a brand I don't normally purchase. Decided to try it out, liked it a lot. That was about three weeks ago.

> Would a fancy jingle convince you to sit 40 mins in traffic for the same crappy burger with slightly different sauce from the same Sysco truck?

I don't think it's possible to sit in traffic for 40 minutes on my continent, so that's going to be a pretty tough sale.

Both of your examples shows you bought new products because you learned about their specs and tried them for rational reasons. It isn't a counter-example at all. Traditional marketing works via emotional manipulation first and foremost, informing the public is secondary. If marketing to nerds mainly works via informing them of new products then marketing isn't very effective on that group.