Advertisers try and sell material products using transcendent values - cars that give you freedom, cameras that give you friendship, clothes that give you beauty, diamonds that give you love.
In this way, as well as being part of the physical environment, adverts become part of our mental environment. They tell us stories about the way the world is, about what is okay or even desirable. Some of these stories are impossible promises, some are distractions and some are odious lies.
Mostly adverts encourage us to believe that we should be able to have anything that we want. Here are some examples.
