Monday’s Big Idea

Today's Big Idea: Manufactured Demand

America's consumer economy is based on a lot of people buying a lot of things they don't need very often. In order to grow revenues, companies turn to advertising to create the desire for products that people otherwise wouldn't buy. This is called Manufactured Demand.

Allain de Botton, a prominent atheist writer and a co-founder of The School of Life, poses this question to Big Think: What if we were able to take the tools of advertising and marry them with virtues that are worth promoting in our world today? This "Ethical Advertising Agency," as he deems it, would be able to nudge us to be our best selves.

So let's get started. What are the six virtues worth promoting in 2012?

Alain de Botton: Imagining Advertisements for Things We Really Need

by Daniel Honan

What if advertising could be used for things that we really do need? Alain de Botton imagines what a world would look like if the tools of advertising could be used to nudge us to be the best of ourselves.

How to Get Ahead in Chinese Advertising

by Jason Gots

So deeply rooted, says Tom Doctoroff, is the Western belief in individual freedom, that it is nearly impossible for us to accept the fact that in Chinese culture, the individual does not exist outside of her network of familial and communal obligations.

How Classic Advertising Teaches us About America

by Tal Pinchevsky

A compilation of classic print ads at the Consumerist, titled “Top 10 Ironic Ads From History,” showcases how vastly different this country is today compared to just a couple of generations ago.

Nina DiSesa: Does advertising manipulate?

by Nina DiSesa

You can't sell somebody something they don't want, DiSesa says.

New World Order

Monday’s Big Idea

Today's Big Idea: Manufactured Demand