Advertising and Social Values
THOMAS A. PETIT
and
ALAN ZAKON
This article was written independently of the one preceding, by Colston E.
Warne. The point that authors Petit and Zakon are
making is that advertising is
a bulwark rather than a
threat to our existing values.
They maintain that critics
oi advertising who say that
it violates the American
value system are in reality
criticizing the American
value system itself.
CRITICISM of advertising is that it violates our
A COMMON
system of values. Advertising is charged with exalting mate-
rialism at the expense of traditional spiritual values in American
life.
Historian David Potter says in People of Plenty that "the most
important facts of this powerful institution (advertising) are not
upon the economics of our distributive system; they are upon the
values of our society."^ Potter considers abundance to be a major
force in American history and advertising to be the institution of
abundance. He compares advertising with the school and church in
the magnitude of its social influence; and says that it dominates
the mass media, has vast power in shaping popular standards, and
is one of a limited number of institutions which exercises social
control. Potter's major criticism is that advertising, unlike the
school and church, does not have as a goal the betterment of the
individual.^
Analyses of this kind nsually proceed in the following way:
(1) We need a high level of consumption to keep our tremendously
productive economic system fully employed. (2) This requires a
consumption-oriented population. (3) Advertising trains people in
their role of consumer. (4) As a result of advertising, people covet
material rather than spiritual values.
There is much validity to this chain of reasoning, so far as it
goes. There can be no doubt that demand rather than supply, and
affluence rather than scarcity, are the crux of our economic problem in America. For the first time in history a great nation has
developed sufficient technological might to make it difficult for her
people to maintain the pace of consumption required to keep the
machines working full time. Advertising, as the social institution
of persuasion par excellence, is bound to play an important role in
such an economy.
The American Value System
But this does not necessarily mean that advertising subverts the
American value system. This is not passible. As any copywriter
can tell you, advertising must be compatible with the values of
the consumer if it is to influence his behavior. Advertising is an
educating, and not a forcing process. It interprets the wantsatisfying qualities of the product for the consumer. To do this,
it must relate product characteristics and consumer benefits to
^ David M. Potter, People of Plenty: Economic Abundance and the
American Character (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1954), p. 188.
-' Same reference as footnote 1, pp. 176-177.
15
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values the customer has already learned. The surest
way to lose a sale and a customer is to go against
the tide of what people think is right and wrong.
Why, then, do so many intellectuals and moralists
hold advertising in such contempt? It is because of
a misunderstanding of the causal relationship between advertising and social values. Consider the
source of social values and the effect they have on
us.
We get our values from the family, play group,
school, church, and other social institutions. As we
grow up, these values are internalized, and we become socialized so that we can take our place in
society. The function of advertising is to help
socialize us so that we are prepared to play our
role as consumers; and as consumers we are supposed to consume more standardized goods. It is
necessary that our tastes are easily influenced and
anticipated if consumption is to be sufficiently
dynamic to clear the ever expanding market.
Advertising is merely a means to an end, and
the end is a consumption-oriented people. Thus, the
question of whether or not advertising contradicts
our value system hinges on the legitimacy of highlevel consumption as a social goal.
What role does consumption play or ought it to
play in the American value system? Russell Kirk in
Prospects for Conservatives says that in presentday America too much emphasis is placed on material production and consumption; that a rising
standard of living is unduly exalted; and that too
much wealth is enervating,^ More emphasis should
go to craftsmanship, to satisfying, work, and to
lives in which mercy, honor, charity, and beauty
prevail, he claims.
Kirk's ideals are lofty, nobody can deny. But they
represent what he would like American values and
goals to be, not what they really are. A closer
approximation to the actual situation is given by
Harvard sociologist Talcott Parsons, who refers to
the American value system as one of "instrumental
activism."-i The most important characteristic of
this value system is "a commitment to indefinite
generalized 'progress' . . ."^ In other words, Americans are a very pragmatic people who favor a practical rather than a theoretical approach to life. We
have faith that tomorrow will be better than today,
and we value highly education and economic wellbeing.
In what way is high-level consumption in conflict
with such a value orientation? The answer is tbat
3 Russell Kirk, Prospects for Conservatives (Chicago:
Henry Regnery Company, 1956), Chapter 8.
•* Talcott Parsons, "Authority, Legitimation, and Political Action," in Authority, Carl J. Friedrich, editor
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958).
5 Same reference as footnote 4, p. 199.
Journal of Marketing, October, 1962
there is no conflict. The consumer role that advertising helps to instill in us does not oppose our
value system—it reflects it. Whether we like it or
not, we are a materialistic people; and a steadilyrising standard of living is one of our most
cherished goals.
The truth of the matter is that the critics of
advertising are not really criticizing advertising;
they are criticizing the American value system
itself.
Sociologically speaking, it would be impossible
for advertising to be in conflict with the value
system. It is the value system which determines the
nature and significance of social institutions like
advertising, not the other way around. The value
system is the most precious possession of society.
It is protected against conflicting values coming, in
from other societies and from internal rebellion
with society by institutions of social control.
Advertising as an Institution
Advertising is one of these institutions. Since
it is in the service of the value system, advertising
cannot run counter to it and survive. On the contrary, it must protect social values. Tf the critics
of advertising would stop confusing their ideal
value systems with what the American value system
really ;s, they would see that advertising is a
bulwark rather than a threat to our existing values.
Consider the value of competition. There can
hardly be a more central value in American life.
For generations competition has been lauded as
the key to free-enterprise capitalism. But oldfashioned price competition is no longer compatible
with the highly-concentrated market structure
•found in many industries since the rise of big
business. If there are three or four flrms in an
industry and they compete on an all-out price basis,,
competition can lead to ruinous results for them
and for the public.
• ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Thomas A.
Petit is Professor of Business Administration and Economics and Director of
the Breech School of Business Administration, Drury Coliege. Formerly he
taught marketing at the University of
Caiifornia at Los Angeles, where he
was Assistant Dean in the Graduate
School of Business Administration. His
articles have appeared in a number of
different professional publications.
A graduate of Harvard University,
Alan Zafcon has an M.S. degree from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School ot Industrial Management.
He is currently teaching marketing at
the , University of California at Los Angeles.
Advertising and Social Values
How could the value of competition be made compatible with the reality condition of a high degree
of economic concentration? The answer would be
for big-business flrms to compete on a non-price
basis. By so doing, market pressure would be
maintained on each seller without the necessity of
foregoing the efficiency of mass production. Actually, this solution is made possible largely by the
power of advertising to differentiate different
brands of the same product in the consumer's mind.
Another example of a value which is protected by
advertising is equality. The belief that all men are
created equal is one of the most basic American
values. The corollary of this belief is the notion
of a classless society. Such a concept is invalid,
of course, because our society does have a class
structure. The important thing is that the idea of
a classless society comes into conflict with the need
that each man has for a sense of identity. Psychiatrist Erich Fromm says that the need to feel a
sense of identity stems from the very condition of
human existence, and it is the source of the most
intense strivings.**
But how can an individual gain a sense of identity in a society which claims to be classless and
thereby deprives him of conscious association with
a social class with which he can identify?
It is perhaps ironic that the answer to this
question is provided in such a typically consumption-oriented fashion by a society based on a massproduction economy. People can emulate the social
class with which they wish to identify by purchasing the status symbols of that class. Advertising
is the source of information about what one should
consume to develop a self-image appropriate to his
identity needs.
There is more than a grain of truth in the saying, "What a man consumes, a man is." Therefore,
advertising serves as a mediating device between
the value of equality and the individual's need for
a sense of identity based on social class structure.
^ Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom (New York:
Farrar & Rinehart, 1941).
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Perhaps the best way to understand the relationship between advertising and social values is
to begin with the question, "Why do we allow advertising to exist?" There are legal means to do
away with it any time we wish, but very few people
would approve such an action. Why? What is
there about advertising that is of value in the
American way of life?
The answer is to be found in perhaps the most
fundamental of American values—the fear of the
illegitimate use of centralized authority. This
negative value probably developed as a spontaneous response of the colonies to the dependent status
they were forced to occupy by England. In political life, this value has time and time again manifested itself in the voter attitude of "rotating the
rascals" out of office who are now in office. It is
the reason for the deep American commitment to
the public policy toward power of checks and balances. In economic life, the fear of the illegitimate
use of centralized power has been the mainstay of
capitalism against the threat of socialism and communism. Americans prefer capitalism because it
is associated in their minds and feelings with individual freedom (which is a positive way of stating the fear of illegitimate use of centralized
power).
But a capitalistic system which is subject to
severe depressions offers precious little freedom
from the ills of an industrial civilization. Therefore, anything which helps to stabilize economic
activity at a high level of employment becomes associated with individual freedom. Since advertising has as its objective the maintenance of a
high level of demand, it is a freedom-protecting
institution.
In the minds of many Americans there is probably the following- kind of dimly-perceived equation: advertising = consumption orientation =
high-level demand — economic stability — healthy
capitalism ~ individual freedom. Whether or not
such relationships actually exist, if Americans
think they do, then advertising will continue to
flourish.