When done well, and on behalf of a worthwhile product, advertising can, in this way, advance human freedom, by showing that choices exist and making them seem real. But advertising can also obscure choices, or (as we have seen) present false ones (e.g., “Use this product or suffer the embarrassing consequences”). Nonetheless the advertiser, unless a monopolist, usually remains within the realm of persuasion among a background of choice. True propaganda, by contrast, aims to obliterate that marketplace and the choices as such, by making them seem unthinkable or nonexistent.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 423