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.
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