I write about this extensively on https://sonnet.io/posts/reactive-hole/ or https://untested.sonnet.io and I totally agree with you.

I make toys and useless things in my spare time (e.g. https://untested.sonnet.io/Sit.%2C+(together)+devlog+002+–+S... or https://rafsters.itch.io/all-hands) and I used to run an MtG club :)

Example of making people buying things they don't need would include sth like: a person who cannot afford to buy an expensive phone every year, getting one because of peer pressure generated by millions of dollars spent on advertising. I'm not talking about someone who would buy the same phone for their own pleasure, I'm talking about someone who would become socially excluded or mocked by his friends at school.

I'm talking about a generated need and compulsion over pleasure.

Things you wouldn't seek out unless you were first shown an ad.

MTG is a great example of the opposite. You seek out something fun to do with your friends. You happen to see an ad for MTG as fulfilling that need. Fantastic! Advertising works as it should.

But if I buy a print-on-demand mug as a gag for my sister's birthday, do I really need to spend the rest of my life looking at ads for novelty mugs? The gag is done. Nobody needs more mugs.