Today, the high sales of popular consumer goods reflect the power of advertising and not the real needs of the society in which they are sold. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Nowadays, a product is not sold on the basis of necessity as much as it is made to believe so. Advertising and how a product is embed into our psyche is the real deal breaker. I completely agree that advertising is the driving force in selling a product rather than the actual need of it.
Darwin summarized our needs very articulately in his life long research. Human beings simply require food, companionship, shelter and protection. That pretty much sums up our needs, anything beyond that warrants from a want rather than a need and companies know how to blur those lines.
Mostly though, its a very predatory sort of a relationship where advertising companies play on the target consumers insecurities. Eluded promises of getting lucky in pursuit of love by spending on vanity. Or impressing the crowd you are so desperately trying to fit in with by flashing a Rolex on your wrist. The list goes on and on.
Its like running behind a mirage. The whole idea setting is so unrealistic and that in part makes it even more alluring. One of the best examples of this is Tiffany diamond company orchestrating the belief that an engagement ring is an absolute necessity for the occasion. They even went out to say that the ring should at least be worth 2 months of income.
These are but some of the example of how truly side tracked we are from the real needs of a society. Marketing is not all evil but should be more ethical and aware of its target audience. A Gucci bag cannot fix world hunger, A new Mcdonalds outlet will not clothe the homeless.
Mass advertising has a way of dehumanizing real problems and masquerading
under the guise of actual needs. It is improper and its high time that something should be done about it.