I don't like the idea of being a "product" period, but at least wide-net ads aren't harvestiing or benefiting from the harvesting of personal information.
Sure- with targeted ads I'd see stuff I might actually use- Visual Studio stuff, Database stuff, programming tools, etc. But if I prefer to be the one who finds it because I explicitly am looking for it, Not effectively being asked "can you use this?" as ads both implicitly ask and try to convince you the answer is yes.
If that was to mean I'd see the occasional ad for feminine hygiene products or Those stupid hats people put on those little terrier dogs, then I'd be fine with that, but they don't, instead ad networks gather information, profile where you go, and make use of the websites that place ads on their pages to do so. Google analytics and adsense are damned near everywhere so Google's ad network tracks bloody well everything, that data is collated and used to sell ad services to advertisers based on how well it can be exploited to find people who are likely to be interested in their product.
The idea isn't to show people things they want or need, the idea is to show people things that they are likely to buy. Elderly people are often shown advertisements for scams, for example. They don't care about the potential customer- only that they are a potential customer.
I can't eliminate the data ad networks receive but I can definitely limit it with tools like adblock, and if that violates the implicit moral contract in place for viewing content, then I don't care anymore.