I agree. In reproducing Antonio García Martínez's claim without other solid research -- that "most ad insiders express skepticism about Cambridge Analytica’s claims of having influenced the election, and stress the real-world difficulty of changing anyone’s mind about anything with mere Facebook ads" [...] -- the author himself seems to be insufficiently critical regarding the fact that public opinion can be heavily influenced and how much propaganda, public relations and advertisment can be used in that respect.
Edwards Bernays' (the father of PR) techniques to persuade the public (or "engineer consent") were so successful that Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi minister of propaganda, displayed a copy of his book "Propaganda" in his library.[1]
[1] https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1981/11/25/releasing-the-...
Other reading:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4318333/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/02/12/the-fixer
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/jul/27/marketingandpr...
LE: typos