Advertising as an Institution

It is impossible to escape. It is everywhere, and it is omnipresent. It is so ubiquitous that the human mind tends to become immune to it sometimes. The subject in which I am speaking of is advertising. But how does it, as an institution, affect us as consumers? More specifically, how does it affect our consumer culture? In the following essay, a number of factors will be discussed in detail that reflect how each one contributes to how advertising as an institution affects consumer culture in the United States.

I think it is most important to first define each of the two key terms in which I am discussing. The first, which is institution, is defined as " a humanly designed method of handling certain problems of existence" (text pg. 12). In particular, advertising as an institution is "primarily designed to provide information on economic goods and services, but which now, under the impact of modern conditions, finds broader, noneconomic applications" (text pg.12). Socially, this institution influences our behavior pertaining to roles, and economically it influences where consumers disperse their wealth.

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Approximate Word count = 2057
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)