> Even using adblock you can't scroll down two lines without running into some old dude hawking cheap wine.

This is an article about Orson Welles (an old guy) making an infamous commercial. It is about the history of advertising. The YouTube iframe is the commercial the article is about.

I’m 99% sure that was a joke

Make it 100%, I figured detailing that I went out of my way to watch the video again would make that clear.