Walking in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

I, as I mentioned before, agree regarding the effect of advertising. But to deny that a consumer influenced by advertising is still free to make a choice is quite an extreme position to take. Would you suggest a consumer in the 80s purchasing a sedan after seeing an advertisement has any more agency or less agency than someone today buying an SUV after seeing an advertisement? Is one more a "consumer choice" than the other?

I'm also curious why you think different markets (such as Europe) have consumers making different choices when, broadly speaking, the same companies are involved?

It's never going to be yes-or-no. I think that more advertising, at some level, does mean that more people make purchase decisions to buy the thing that is being advertised. Can't point to any specific case, but surely it's got to be true in general.

There's also the arms race aspect of it where you feel surrounded by big SUVs and therefore the need to get one yourself. (I mean, I ride a bicycle around, or sometimes a Mazda 2, but generally.)

I agree that seeing SUVs everywhere affects people, but like I said, why are you surrounded by SUVs...it's a self reinforcing aspect of our culture now, but we only got here because auto executives wanted us here. In fact, none of the major domestic automakers as far as I'm aware, advertised during the superbowl...they don't need to anymore...