Guess I didn't take the same econ classes, I thought providing value to the customer was what capitalism ran on. I go to the butcher next door without having seen a single ad about it. They just sell a "better" product (according to my own criteria) than the supermarkets around.

If tomorrow (please take a second to imagine) that ads were banned and it worked (effectively 0 ads anywhere) I would still read journals that review new boardgames, I would still need products to fix my bike, etc.

It's value that makes capitalism run, not ads.