La publicidad es comúnmente demonizada por los anti-capitalistas. La defensa más exhaustiva (y quizás excesiva) que he leído de la publicidad, tanto de su legitimidad en una sociedad libre como de su utilidad en una economía de mercado, es In Defense of Advertising: Arguments From Reason, Ethical Egoism, and Laissez-Faire Capitalism
Robert Nozick aporta en The Examined Life: Philosophical Meditations
Besides its functions of giving information and catching attention and its less happy one of sidestepping rational evaluation, advertising can manipulate images to differentiate a product - cigarettes or beer, for example - in a way that is not based on any relevant differences in the objects' actual characteristics. One cigarette or drink is not "really" more rough and Western, another not really more elegant. We can see this differentiation as performing a useful function, though, not only for the sellers of products but for their buyers too. We all might like, upon occasion, to feel an unusual way or to reinforce ways we would like to be. We sometimes do this with fictional or film characters, moving through life somewhat in their aura. With their style of movement or standing, dress or speech, we feel more like them, tough or elegant, sophisticated or sexy, daring, adventurous or rough-hewn. We also might welcome products with chemicals added that temporarily could make us feel these ways, enabling us to relax (or tense) into certain roles and moods. Advertising expands our range of opportunities in the ways, even when it is not based on any actual differentiating characteristic of the product. By creating symbolic props we can utilize in our fantasy life, advertising functions as the added chemical would. Armed thus with the right cigarette or car or drink, we can play at being a certain way or more easily imagine we are that way. (Even when the products do differ, part of their qualities' function might be to fit into and prompt further fantasies.) Sometimes when we behave thus, others will produce fitting responses and thereby make our role more comfortable, even eventually, more authentic. This mode of creating and utilizing illusions need not come into conflict with the reality principles if the person remains aware it is an induced role. This does not mean, however, that he must constantly be aware of it as false. If the symbolic prop give him the confidence to exercise the wit or courage he has, the he does become more witty or courageous. However, advertising should not aim to convince someone that a product will make her invulnerable to bullets or detection, for example. Few people growing up in our society are that simple, though, and most advertisers wisely stick to creating pleasant illusions that can be sustained or at least that cannot be disconfirmed obviously and bluntly.
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