I'm sure the 12 categories described in this story represents a useful way to think about advertising.

But there's a simpler way to boil it down.

An ad succeeds to the extent that it instills in the viewer discontent with his status quo (life without the advertised product). Ads seek to convince the viewer that without the product, he's a loser, but that acquiring the product will make him a winner: socially, economically, physically. This instills the motivation to buy the product.

There are serious negative effects of a world dominated by advertising. People lose self-confidence. (Buying the product can never produce the ideal portrayed in ads.) Some become physically ill. It's widely accepted that unrealistic standards of feminine beauty presented by advertisements are a huge factor in the surge in anorexia and bulemia in Western nations.

I think this idea about advertising holds water. Even in simple "demonstration" videos of slicers and dicers, the point is that *you* can't make food look appetizing without these products. You're a loser until you buy them.

It works because all of us - every one - are worried about how we present ourselves to others. It's a competitive world, and we fear that looking bad, or driving an unhip car, or failing to wear the right make-up, or presenting ugly food to guests, will make others think less of us and hurt our prospects in life. We imagine that consumers who buy the product will be ahead of us in some tangible way, leaving us in a less competitive position, unless we buy it, too.

Understanding how advertising really works is like being inoculated against it. I'll be surprised if an ad exec ever goes public about it.