> The point of advertising is to convince people to make purchasing decisions that they wouldn't have otherwise made, which is almost always damaging financiall

> The point of advertising is to convince people to make purchasing decisions that they wouldn't have otherwise made, which is almost always damaging financially. That's not really true. People purchase things because they decide that the benefit is worth the cost. Advertising makes people pick one brand over another when they already plan to buy something, and it helps sway someone's decision when they're not sure if it's worth buying. It also brings their attention to products that they wouldn't otherwise have known about. But this sort of advertising is almost never "damaging financially", unless you think the act of buying something counts as financial damage.