American Culture is often criticized for being too materialistic. The idea

that advertizing creates artificial desires rests on a profound ignorance

of human nature, as Stephen leacock quotes: "Advertizing is the science

of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it".

However, the concept of materialism is too complex, but most of

definitions focus on the extent to which the acquisition and possession

of material objects is important to individuals.



Nowadays, many people think that the control of culture has passed

into the hands of advertisers. In America as in the rest of the world,

advertising is all about "branding"which is the central activity of

creating differing values for such common place objects and services as

flour, cigarettes, jeans, Cola drink, air travel, telephone carriers etc...

Giving objects their identity, and thus a perceived value, is advertizing's

unique power. For instance, would people spend $100 for a pair sneakers

or spend a $30,000 for a car they have never heard of its brand? Of

course not! Thus, advertizing is simply one of the number of attempts

to load objects with meanings and one of the major methods to load this

meaning is through repetition:


The first time a man looks at an adverisement, he does not see it.

The second time he is conscious of its existence.

The third time he thinks he will ask someone he knows if he has tried it.

The fourth time, he thinks it must be a good thing.

The fifth time he thinks he will buy it one day.

The sixth time he counts his money carefully and finally buys it.


This is how advertizing attempts to influence our thinking and

pushes us to buy things that we didn't use to pay attention to. In

this regard, we can say that American culture is materialistic as long

as we ae in a continuous contact with advertizing wherever we go.