Late Stage Capitalism

the article very clearly explains that. Give it a read, it's not that long.

…but if you aren't going to read it, the summary is that the way we think ads work, associating brands with positive emotions (termed "emotional inception" in this article), is bollocks. Instead, they rely on "cultural imprinting", i.e. associating the brand with a kind of person or situation. For example, corona is the beer for relaxing on the beach, nike and gatorade are for athletes. So, if you want to relax with some homies, you drink corona. If you value athletic performance, you drink gatorade and wear nike shoes. Major exceptions apply, please just read the article.