(Blog entry for Oct 21, 2010. Linked to SunnytheBright’s Post)
Economist, Kenneth Galbraith argues that businesses create artificial wants in consumers through advertising, and that these needs are satisfied through increasing consumption. Consumers are unlikely to have all their desires satisfied for long, as the economy continually produces new output and accompanying wants. Galbraith named this phenomenon “The Dependence Effect” and implies an unending and possibly very bad stream of unsatisfied wants.
In Sunny The Bright’s post, “the things you own end up owning you”, Sunny accuses advertising practices for convincing consumers that they NEED certain products and that advertising can make everyone a “drone” told what to buy. Sunny’s claim seems to mirror some of the workings of the Dependence Effect, a theory with which I don’t fully agree.
I see advertisements as vehicles delivering necessary information for purchase decisions. The presentation of this information can be entertaining in an effort to persuade the customer to buy the product. But there is no evidence that advertisements can control and tell consumers what they NEED or MUST buy. From personal experience, I may find a commercial entertaining or a magazine ad very engaging, but after the critical muscles kick in I know what I really do need-my autonomy is intact.
Teenagers, however, are likely impressionable as they are still growing and accumulating life experiences to make appropriate purchases. Entertaining advertisements may more easily persuade them to buy certain junk food products for instance. And harmful social influences are likely to recruit them into drug usage. Quite reasonably, youth are a vulnerable group to good or bad advertising when they don’t have the critical thinking skills to protect them nor the knowledge to know what’s really good for them.
The Dependence Effect could work especially well for pleasure seekers or materialists who have the income and the time to search for products and potential needs to fulfill. Referencing Maslowe’s Hierarchy, these individuals actively pursue satisfaction of higher order needs and may find or create within themselves, additional higher order needs to fulfill: for example, one may have never used an adult toy; but after much pleasure, one may investigate and look for new innovative models compatible with various parts of the body-this is an illustration of the personal search for hidden sexual wants waiting to be discovered. Advertising, while operating through the Dependence Effect, will introduce these potential sexual wants which may then be satisfied by the promoted item.
The Dependence Effect, however, would not work on critical, and thrift individuals such as myself: I don’t wear the latest trends or have a cell phone. My purchases are based on smart evaluations of my needs. To me, advertising is only a fancy means of helping me decide.
It would be inaccurate to call everyone a drone who gives into marketing-a sweeping generalization that cannot apply to all individuals. Since individuals’ consumer behaviour will be moderated by their values, perceptions and attitudes, each one is more or less prone to advertising tactics. But in the end, their choices are ultimately their own.