Advertising is often thought to be a manipulative force for consumption that dupes people into buying things they don’t need. The “ad creep” that pushes product placements into unexpected venues, including airport baggage carousels and eggshells, is generally thought to be a bad thing by many in the media. Last week, author Lucas Conley and I spoke about the “arms race” between advertisers and everyone else, where advertisers try to sneak advertisements in, and people try to push them out.
The perception that advertising is hated by most people is flat-out wrong, Winston Fletcher writes for the British magazine the New Humanist. Fletcher cites statistics that 80 percent of Britons believe advertising is a good thing. While intellectuals collectively wring their hands over the glut of advertisements, Fletcher writes that ads are simply a dialogue between companies and prospective consumers, and the more creative the better.
