I definitely get ghosted on my google searches with advertisements. It does feel a little invasive.. but it's something I have gotten use to. Lately it seems like its gotten worse though.
It actually blew a birthday surprise for my wife recently.. I searched for a specific coffee mug she wanted, and then while I was on Reddit , she saw the advertisement for the mug I was looking for. She was like "Whoa no way! That's the mug I want!" She didn't realize I was being ghosted at first and thought it was a coincidence, but I had to tell her haha. It was a very specific mug.
Also, I had totally forgotten about Spy Vs. Spy comic strips until you posted the photo. What a throwback!
yeah, that's another tactic used commonly - search for something once and then it shows up fucking EVERYWHERE.
they could definitely use an upgrade on that tactic, though - more than once, I ended up buying the thing, and was still getting shown the ads weeks later...