Lee Daniel Crocker [lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net] wrote:
>I offered this counterexample, because
>people are "expected" to buy diamond engagement rings precisely
>because DeBeers told them to in its advertising decades ago.
Sorry, but using gems as a dowry to purchase the right to marry a female is an old tradition going back thousands of years BC. Although it fits this lists politics to blast advertisers for creating public thought, in this case it doesn't fit the facts.
>Other examples: underarm deodorants, shampoos, cosmetics and other
>personal care products that no one realized they needed until
>chemical companies started telling us that we smell bad and that
>plain soap makes our hair split and that painted faces are good.
Again, sorry. Native Americans used shampoos from the yucca tree long before chemical companies told them to. The bible mentions face-painting, lip painting, eye-painting, shaving, and using pleasant scents on the body. These practices are also thousands of years old. Again, what you say sounds good in the course of conversation, but with a little thought you will realize that these claims are obviously false.
>The most effective demand-creation advertising can be very subtle,
>as in movies that glamorize smoking and drinking,
I hope you aren't going to claim that alcohol and tobacco are newly created demands....
-- Harvey Newstrom <http://newstaffinc.com> Author, Consultant, Engineer, Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.