As material civilisation advances and the supply of available goods and services increases, man's needs correspondingly multiply. Advertising plays a key role in this never-ending process by stimulating the public's desire for certain products, and thereby promoting the sales thereof, until it has, in effect, created new needs, real or supposed, where there were none before. A familiar example is the motor car - once a rare and costly novelty, now an ubiquitous and relatively inexpensive necessity. More recently, the television set has undergone the same transformation. While some people would deny that television is a necessity, the fact that sets are found in a majority of Western homes shows that it answers, to a greater or lesser degree, the need felt by millions of people for entertainment and information.
A product, service, or commodity that the public needs, and knows it needs, tends of course, to "sell itself". We might therefore assume that, in such cases advertising would be of minor importance. To some extent this is true. Meat-packers, vegetable and fruit growers, and dairy operators spend less on advertising, for instance, than manufacturers of cigarettes, liquors, cosmetics, and other items of this type. On the other hand, the competition that exists between rival brands means that the suppliers of such basic necessities as food, clothing, and housing must advertise their wares to stay in business. Significantly, the industry that spends most on advertising turns out a product which almost everyone considers a necessity: soap.
