You're criticizing the author for not addressing the "actual ethical issue", yet you yourself are failing to even state what you think it is.
There is absolutely zero societal consensus that advertising is unethical, in the way there is a consensus that fraud or murder are.
To the contrary -- there is vast disagreement around the ethics of online advertising, delicately balancing concerns around societal good, access to information, funding, factuality, bias, tracking, privacy, and consent. The incredible complexity of the issues involved is pretty much proof that there is nothing merely "prima facie" at all.
Citation needed.
You're criticizing the author for not addressing the "actual ethical issue", yet you yourself are failing to even state what you think it is.
There is absolutely zero societal consensus that advertising is unethical, in the way there is a consensus that fraud or murder are.
To the contrary -- there is vast disagreement around the ethics of online advertising, delicately balancing concerns around societal good, access to information, funding, factuality, bias, tracking, privacy, and consent. The incredible complexity of the issues involved is pretty much proof that there is nothing merely "prima facie" at all.