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The advertising industry is a huge industry, and anyone with their eyes open can see what it's for. First of all, the existence of the advertising industry is a sign of the unwillingness to let markets function. If you had markets, you wouldn't have advertising. Like, if somebody has something to sell, they say what it is and you buy it if you want. But when you have oligopolies, they want to stop price wars.

They have to have product differentiation, and you got to turn to deluding people into thinking you should buy this rather than that. Or just getting them to

consume - if you can get them to consume, they're trapped, you know.It starts with the infant, but now there's a huge part of the advertising industry

which is designed to capture children. And it's destroying childhood. Anyone who has any experience with children can see this. It's literally destroying childhood.

Kids don't know how to play. They can't go out and, you know, like when you were a kid or when I was a kid, you have a Saturday afternoon free. You go out to

a field and you're finding a bunch of other kids and play ball or something. You can't do anything like that. It's got to be organized by adults, or else you're at

home with your gadgets, your video games.But the idea of going out just to play with all the creative challenge, those

insights: that's gone. And it's done consciously to trap children from infancy and then to turn them into consumer addicts.

Noam Chomsky

What is advertising for?

Grace Ann Carone Advertising is a subtle way of brainwashing.

Joe Grant Masters of illusion, creating confusion. Is it my delusion or is there myriad collusion?

Kerry Chamberlin If we allow our children to sit in their room playing mindless games on their gadgets we are as much to blame for taking away their childhood as advertising. Children have the ability to play, what most lack is the opportunity. We, as adults, have the ability to give them this opportunity. Turn off the TV, put away the X-Box, go outside and play.

Advertising – the bad guy?

Darin Layne I'm sorry Noam, but …. We had commercial after commercial and brand after brand and etc... kids still play outside and it's not all lost. ... The idea that you and I lived like a little house on the prairie is silly and false. And Why is that childhood any better? I think you have a selective memory. I think you are using capitalism to market yourself quite effectively here.…Just that I would expect more form someone of your reputation. Get RealMichelle Gumm It's not advertising that keeps kids from playing outside. It's the realistic fear that some piece of trash pervert will kidnap them. The drug users who leave dirty needles in the parks. The drug dealers and gang members looking to recruit.

Sigvart Aaserud Midling-Hansen Observing these posts, I increasingly see Noam Chomsky as a pessimist. Not in a very convincing fashion either, see for example this notion of "belief in the markets", where a seller simply the market what he has to sell and there is a want for it they will buy. Over simplistic anyone? Figuring out what people want and need is a very complex task and marketing certainly play a functional role in this process. There is no denying the large misuse of marketing of course, just take a look at McDonalds, but black-painting the entire concept of marketing is construing it too one-sided to say the least. 

Advertising – the good guy?