Keeping Advertising from Going Down in History Unfairly
Richard W. PollayUniversity of British Columbia
Advertising is judged by some to have helped turn nations of religious villagers of modest means and ambitions into envious materialists, eroding social cohesion in the process [1,2]. While materialistic motivations may have spurred their economic productivity, it may also induce greater self-indulgence, distrust of authority, crime, or even greater civil unrest and revolutionary fervor [3]. While this may seem far-fetched to marketing and advertising practitioners worrying about the prosaic pragmatics of brand share, this type of concern is the...