Thousands of people are fascinated by fictitious characters that exist specifically to manipulate them to buy particular products.

The fictitious characters in movies are also used to manipulate audiences to buy particular products. Companies pay for their products to be shown in the movies — this is called "product placement".

At least movies are not made solely to show products. They typically try to present something else of interest. Perhaps the fictitious "influencers" represent an evolution in the direction of pure and simple manipulation — in how to lead people to crave the anxiety of being commercially manipulated.