> diamonds I mean zero-sum in that advertising shifts spending from one area to another. Perhaps all the diamond ring money would have gone into other things.

> diamonds I mean zero-sum in that advertising shifts spending from one area to another. Perhaps all the diamond ring money would have gone into other things. It's a hard point to prove or disprove, but even if advertising overall deceases the consumer saving rate, sure the vast majority of advertising cancels out. (I'm going to buy tide or downy, but not both.) > except to say that consumers definitely show preference for branded items Well these meaningless competing brands convey no information and waste tons of resources. And it's rather an embarrassment to Capitalism for the primary non-price information exchanged by market actors to be bullshit noise, even if it isn't a "real problem" compared to global warming or something.