EXPRESS READING ADS AND THE CONSUMER SOCIETY

EXPRESS READING

ADS AND THE CONSUMER SOCIETY

Does advertising encourage waste by persuading consumers

to buy goods that they do not need? In reply to this, it

has been pointed out that all the consumer really needs,

is a bare minimum of clothing, food and shelter, and that

one of the distinguishing marks of any civilized community

is that it lives well above the minimum subsistence level.

Most advertising is designed to influence the consumer's

spending power. In western countries, advertising has

played a great part in bringing laboursaving equipment,

and so a degree of leisure, and even luxury, to millions.

Advertising that encourages the public to want more is

also claimed to act as an incentive making people want to

earn more in order to buy the goods advertised, and

therefore making them work harder. For this reason

advertising has been defended as having an essential part

to play in the move towards higher standards of living.

The defenders of advertising also point out that it is

not solely concerned with encouraging the public to spend.

Banks, insurance companies and building societies are

amongst the commercial advertisers who encourage saving.