Manufacturing Desire

As an advertising major, I found chapter 6 to be very intriguing.  The chapter, entitled The Manufacturing of Desire, says enough by itself; advertising is nothing more than a vehicle to sell people hopes, dreams, envy, and status (regardless of whether or not these things can bought).

   In the film How to Get Ahead in Advertising, the main character I believe mentioned something along the lines of, how can we get these people to buy into the aspect of hoping for a solution, without really giving it to them? I found this funny, because in one of my advertising classes this semester, my teacher point-blank told us that the point of an advertisers’ job is not to sell a product, it is the exact opposite.  In order to be successful, we need to never create a solution, otherwise people will stick with the working, reliable, ‘miracle’ product, and will not have the need to search for the next best thing.  

  In order to do this, we need to sell hope, and create an atmosphere around the product that taps into the human psyche and make the consumer NEED the product for whatever reason.   If nothing else, this makes the consumer want to see if it will help their unending battle with bad breath/acne/baldness, etc.  Just like it was mentioned in the film, I have come to realize that advertising really is nothing more than manufacturing desire and emotions that, for the most part, can never be satisfied by being purchased.