ADVERTISING AND THE IMAGINATION.

ADVERTISING AND THE IMAGINATION. Can the effect of advertising be isolated from the product? Meyer Burstein used to pose the question this way to his beginning economics students: Take the example of the Marlboro Man. (Kids, the Marlboro Man was a handsome, rough-hewn cowboy whose silent image promoted Marlboro cigarettes.) Burstein asked: what if all the advertising meant that whenever the man smoked a Marlboro cigarette, he imagined himself to be a Marlboro Man. Burstein then described in glowing terms the man’s self image when he smoked: like a mythic cowboy, in tune with and dominating nature. In the terms of the discussion of the last three days, would his decision to smoke Marlboro cigarettes necessarily be irrational? The Marlboro fable is an even more dramatic today when the consequences of smoking are better known. Change the example to a soft drink that is associated with festive activity, a wine that is associated with a discriminating palate or a coffee that brings you “romance and theater” if it makes you more comfortable.