The power of advertising

I feel the biggest power that advertising has over us is its ability to make us feel inadequate or useless. That's the name of the game. Advertiser seek to point out short comings or holes in your life that you need to fill with their product. As a parent this is very clear to me. During every kids shows their are dozens of toy commercials or insurance or medicine commercials. All set up to make you feel like a bad parent if you don't get your kids that specific vitamin or that life insurance policy. It doesn't just affect us parents. Women and girls are told that they are unattractive unless they have a specific perfume or brand of clothing. Boys are told that they have to be macho and that pressure continues right up through adulthood. It goes from Nerf commercials as kids to deodorant and body wash commercials as men. My point is that advertising has the power to make us feel uncomfortable and have emotions we don't want. And we eat it up and ask for more!