all the marketing in the world wont make americans eat more turnips, nor parsnips, nor collards, nor chitterlings, nor piggie feet, nor sheep marrow, nor calves brains, nor suet.
only a famine can do that, and thats demand exceeding supply, forcing demand to go deeper into the shit pile for a few ragged morsels.
marketing primarily serves to convince the thick witted and thin skulled that Pilsbury Brand flour is superior to King Biscuit. even though the guy with a brain knows perfectly well that flour is flour, as long as the grain is right for the milling, and the milling is done well.
barring serious differences in quality or price, advertising makes the buyer choose on feelings rather than logic, or in the case of morons, habit rather than thought.
advertising poopdicks would love to convince everybody that they are essential, that nothing happens until somebody sells something, but you cant sell from an empty cart, and a peach is only as good as the peach itself, not the salesmanship of the fruit merchant.
the simple existence of advertising does not somehow validate the existence of advertising, any more than the existence of religions makes religions good and useful. religions are only as good as the product they sell, the preacher's charisma only goes so far with most people, if the religion's "product" is shit most people walk away. after that, only the truely lame brained or foolish continue to follow into the cult and buy more auditing, or join the sea org.
When it comes to necessities I will agree with you, what about iphones, ipads, computers, new cars, etc!