Advertisements Appeal To Basest Levels

Defenders of modern advertising are apt to point out that advertising is wedded to scientific materialism for the most practical of all reasons:  It works.  While this statement is undoubtedly true, it does not make modern advertising any less dehumanizing.  By treating consumers as animals to be conditioned rather than as rational beings to be persuaded, the scientific ad men essentially reduce human beings to the level of lab rats.  Instead of appealing to the better angles of human nature, they target people’s lowest material appetites.

John G. West, "Darwin Day in America: How our politics and culture have been dehumanized in the name of science," p.185