Re ECON: Advertising

Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Mon, 25 Jan 1999 11:00:42 -0800 (PST)

From: mark@unicorn.com

>I'd certainly agree that there are such traditions which many
>people follow, but I think that it's a different issue; people buy
>diamond engagement rings -- if they do, most people I know didn't
>want to spend that kind of money on something that isn't really
>useful -- because they're expected to, not because they see an ad
>on TV and think 'oh, I think I'll buy a diamond engagement ring
>today'. Galbraith's theory seems to be the latter; we see
>an ad on TV and follow the meme to go out and buy a diamond
>engagement ring even though we're not going to get engaged.

How many people are buying a diamond engagement ring worth "2 months salary" since DeBeers started running those ad's.

most.

Brian
Member, Extropy Institute
www.extropy.org