Yes but adverts then had a limited ability to make your life worse. Take something I found annoying then (full page magazine advert) and compare that to a full page auto play advert that sometimes even has extra adverts that are flashing down the sides. It is so hostile that I don't go to those places even with a blocker turned on because anyone who values their content that little doesn't have anything I want to see imho.
Ads have always been targeted; they're just more precise now, and fancier. Same tactics.
Think of the old 'sand-in-the-face' bodybuilding ads that were in comic books. Most comic book readers were young males going through puberty, myself included.
Disclosure: I went for the drawing school test ads, and solar ovens in 1976 ;)
