Merchants of dissatisfaction
Many marketers are able to sell their wares by making us dissatisfied with what we already have.
It's not that far from, "This will make you happy!" to "You're unhappy/ugly/lonely/using obsolete technology, better buy this which will help fix the problem."
In fact, if you chart consumer happiness against advertising spend, I bet you'd find a juicy relationship. If the ads exist to make us unhappy (unless we buy the product, of course), then why is it surprising that we're less happy after we encounter enough ads? Just as the goal of cable news is to make us nervous so we'll tune in for more.
Why we stand for this is a mystery to me. Photo ht.
