Advertising is widely held in low repute, stemming from two principal criticisms:

1. Advertisers, it is complained, frequently invade the privacy of consumers, particularly through methods such as telemarketing;

2. Advertising is alleged to influence consumers in undesirable ways, in particular by creating "artificial" demand for products.

The privacy issue will be addressed in Section 5. Here we are concerned with the second claim, voiced not only by scholars but also frequently by members of the general public. Indeed, the very ubiquity of this complaint provides positive evidence that even in our highly regulated and limited economy, a healthy skepticism about advertising is prevalent. In our present society, it is regarded as a truism that commercials cannot be accepted at face value, and to a large extent consumers already place advertising in its proper perspective. In a free-market society, as pointed out above, people would be generally accustomed to making their own decisions and therefore would tend to be more independent-minded (p. 4.10:5). Therefore, we may presume that they would be even less beguiled by advertisers' claims.     

---

Previous