Do advertisements brainwash us

Answer 1

If advertising didn't work in convincing us to buy specific brands, the marketing industry wouldn't be worth billions and industry in general wouldn't pay those billions to ensure we feel good, or special, or even loyal, when we buy their products. I guess you could define the process as brainwashing, because otherwise, intelligent people wouldn't choose, for instance, an identical (but well-advertised) branded supermarket product from exactly the same factory or farm as a cheaper product in a generic package. In my local supermarket they sell generic brand eggs at least two dollars a dozen cheaper than the identical eggs from the identical farm which carry a well-known brand...and people buy the the advertised brand! And, rather than spending a lot of money to go about wearing clothes and accessories with the designer's name all over them, we'd instead ask the designers to pay us to advertise them. If we were using our brains.