Is Advertising Creating Artificial Needs?
Does advertising create artificial wants?
Mariya Krasteva
Most companies nowadays perceive advertisements as a way of survival. Big corporations who gained the largest market share in their industry never stopped advertising, because they are not sure what the effect will be and if they do it, how soon they are going to be forgotten. The market has a need for different and innovative ways to entertain and attract customers to buy, but companies are sometimes crossing the line. Whether advertising creates artificial wants is a very controversial issue. The first thought on that issue is that advertisers do really influence consumer’s wants and desires, but is it so?
People differentiate from animals because they are rational human beings with the capacity of making reasonable choices. Being rational allows them to make rational choices and decisions in terms of what to buy and in this case which advertisements to perceive as reliable. People have the right to choose how to spend their money and the right to pursuit happiness and comfort by buying products that will make them happy and satisfied.
However John Kenneth Galbraith, a well-known economist who defends anti-consumerism, says that everything people want beyond their basic needs is neither “urgent”, nor “important”. But addressing Abraham Harold Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, in order to live normally, human beings require more than just to satisfying the “physiological”, because people have inborn need for “safety”, “love”, “belongingness”, “esteem”, and “self-actualization” needs. Considering that a truth Galbraith is not right because without feeling safe, beautiful, powerful, happy, looking fancy, being desired, respected, loved etc., people would not be able to live and will not have any desire for improvement.
In order to prove that people have free choice and are able to make rational decisions I would address real life examples that are not connected to consumer behavior. People have free
Mariya Krasteva
Most companies nowadays perceive advertisements as a way of survival. Big corporations who gained the largest market share in their industry never stopped advertising, because they are not sure what the effect will be and if they do it, how soon they are going to be forgotten. The market has a need for different and innovative ways to entertain and attract customers to buy, but companies are sometimes crossing the line. Whether advertising creates artificial wants is a very controversial issue. The first thought on that issue is that advertisers do really influence consumer’s wants and desires, but is it so?
People differentiate from animals because they are rational human beings with the capacity of making reasonable choices. Being rational allows them to make rational choices and decisions in terms of what to buy and in this case which advertisements to perceive as reliable. People have the right to choose how to spend their money and the right to pursuit happiness and comfort by buying products that will make them happy and satisfied.
However John Kenneth Galbraith, a well-known economist who defends anti-consumerism, says that everything people want beyond their basic needs is neither “urgent”, nor “important”. But addressing Abraham Harold Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, in order to live normally, human beings require more than just to satisfying the “physiological”, because people have inborn need for “safety”, “love”, “belongingness”, “esteem”, and “self-actualization” needs. Considering that a truth Galbraith is not right because without feeling safe, beautiful, powerful, happy, looking fancy, being desired, respected, loved etc., people would not be able to live and will not have any desire for improvement.
In order to prove that people have free choice and are able to make rational decisions I would address real life examples that are not connected to consumer behavior. People have free
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