Advertising and Economy - VI - The Expansion of Wants and the new Role of Advertising

Let us begin with the process of the expansion of wants. In the first stage of development the basic needs or wants were food and drink as a nourishment and clothing and shelter as protection against the elements. Obviously, at this stage of human development there was no need for adverting. As each of these basic needs began to met, the search began for other needs, some of which could be in the sphere of the arts and culture. Once a society reached the stage of satiation, the search began for the exotic in food and drink, self adornment more than protection against the elements, greater home comforts and more facilities rather than mere shelter. This has been made possible because of wealth generated by the ability of human labor to produce a surplus much beyond his needs. Human beings have added to this ability of discovering new tools and equipment to help the production of larger and larger surplus.

Related to this pattern of development, advertising has advance from merely providing information for goods and services available, to persuasion in the face of competition among different brands of the same product or services, and future on to the creation of new markets, new wants and even new lifestyles. finally, we have reached a stage today when the world is in the process of integration and interdependence. It is the transnationalisation or mobility of capital across national boundaries and of production and distribution, which is fast integrating the world economy. In this situation, the same product is being manufactured in different parts of the world and marketed in different parts of the world. There is a very little difference between the products or services offered by one company or the other. Each company attempts to achieve monopoly control over the market. In such a situation, it is no longer enough for advertising to inform or persuade; it has also to manipulate consumer's mind to ask for a particular brand of product or service, to achieve brand monopoly.

To be continued...

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