I never said that I shouldn’t hear about it, only it shouldn’t have advertising. So recommendations by friends are helpful, so is personal experience in a store or review by trusted source. And for example, all of FOSS software doesn’t have ads for them and often is better than paid counterparts.

There are some exceptions, for example I still hate a company for their yt ads I saw before I figured out how to block them on phone. It has been like 6 years, the company was sold and name was changed, but I still remember to hate it and avoid it. Also, good products don’t need advertisement, so if I can remember I saw an ad for something, I’d prefer other brand.