What toothpaste do you buy? or shoes, or medicine? Your friends? I've bought Advil and generic Ibuprofen. Same with other known brands of general products.

Maybe not always or even mostly but when tired or getting the basics humans tend to go for what they recognize.

Especially noticeable when travelling and there are choices we are not used to seeing and we see the one brand we recognize.

Making the ads clickable is utilizing the real estate.

(scams that rely on you clicking for nefarious purposes are just scammers being scammers, there will always be scams)