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Advertising and Economy - IV - Advertising and Productivity

© Swapan Brahmachari

Thirdly, advertising is a component of democratic society. The essence of democracy is that people have a choice and the right to exercise that choice. In the democratic economic system a variety of good and services is available to choose from. Advertising enables the consumer to make a choice. The fourth aspect follows, in a ways, from the third. Advertising creates conditions for every human being to acquire earned rewards. The way of life, that advertising opens up, provides motivation for hard work to earn enough to achieve such a way of life. This too is a democratic right - the right to spend ones' earnings the way one likes and where a democratic system is expected to provide opportunities for exercise of such a right.

From the fourth aspect follows the fifth. Advertising stimulates productivity. Harder work to earn more to achieve socially upward mobility, stimulated by advertising, naturally leads to higher productivity. This in turn stimulates the economy and development. Finally, all these add up to social change. We must, however, bear in mind the reality that all these factors can operate only under ideal condition. The market does not and cannot always reflect the real social demand. This is because capitalist enterprises in the advanced industrialized countries have become so power full and the search for maximum profits is so predominant a concern, that they often decode what goods and services should be brought into the market so as to secure the maximum profit with the least investment. In a such a system every single one of the aspect of the role of advertising mentioned above gets distorted to some extent. In such a situation advertising creates a demand, which may not be of the vast majority of the people, and hence the nation. Advertising tells consumers what to buy. With emergence of monopolies, competition is often eliminated and advertising manipulates the consumer, giving him or her no opportunity to exercise a rational choice.

To be continued...

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