In March, the Mark Zuckerberg-owned Meta also rolled out ads for Instagram Teen accounts. One 30-second spot features a mother watching her son cross the street with a text overlay that states, “You’ve always looked out for them. We’re here to do it with you.” On December 10, Australia’s historic social media ban will go into effect for teens. It requires companies to deactivate the accounts of kids under the age of 16. So far, Meta, TikTok, Snap, and YouTube have agreed to comply with the new regulations.
For now, the jury is still out on how well that messaging is working. “I hate these fucking ChatGPT commercials that show it helping folks like planning a date that seems ‘chill,’ or how to become a ‘morning person,’ all things that should’ve been learned from a community not a goddamned spicy autocorrect. Fuck all that noise,” Jonathan Flowers, an assistant professor of philosophy at California State University-Northridge, wrote on Bluesky.
Added author Lincoln Michel on X, “Amusing that the main pitch for ChatGPT is telling everyone that they are dumb idiots who can’t possibly handle tasks on their own that humans have accomplished on their own since the dawn of time.”
Despite sentiments like that, the public has never been more ripe for tech’s hard sell than it has at this moment, says Brian Fuhrer, senior vice president of product strategy at Nielsen. More than 70 percent of TV viewing in the third quarter of 2025 was on ad-supported platforms, according to a Nielsen analysis, with streaming accounting for nearly half of total ad-supported viewership. In the last week alone I encountered ads for TikTok and Instagram, and often the same ones, across Peacock, Amazon, and Hulu.
“Advertising has effectively funded television content for decades,” Fuhrer says. The difference now is the intensity with which Silicon Valley seems especially reliant on marketing itself to consumers in a way that proves not only their value, but their lasting benefit.
It’s a direction the tech elite are noticeably aware of as they persuade people to buy into everything they are trying to build. In his telegenic interview with Fallon, Altman said there were “many downsides to technology,” but noted that it was “an equalizing force.” It was all part of the hard sell. Because even Silicon Valley can’t avoid the reality in front of them: You can’t create a future if consumers don’t believe in your product.