I'm not sure what the solution to the problem you're talking about is though?

When it comes to information, technology provides some answers through web of trust systems that can take multiple sources, each with confidence scores, and combine them. But for many things, we don't even need that level, we just need to be more aware of the world in general at the local level. My friend needs to consume less from the advertised sources, and instead pay attention to what is happening around him. He sees a lot in his position - he should work out what it means by himself, rather than looking to be right or wrong in comparison to an advert.