POWER OF ADVERTISING
The art of advertising is to persuade people to buy your product or service. This requires a basic understanding of psychology, the needs of human beings and how those needs can be satisfied.
An American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, has suggested, those needs can be compartmentalized and arranged in the form of a hierarchy.
At the lowest level people need food, shelter, warmth and sex.
When these needs are eagerly satisfied, people begin to think about the safety of themselves and their personal possessions. Squirrels, when they have had their fill of nuts, begin to bury nuts in their winter larders, human beings have the same tendency, much to the relief of the insurance companies. Insurance appeals to those who would feel the loss of personal possessions, through burglary, flood and fire, and those who seek pensions and financial security generally.
Even when a human being does not feel under threat at the safety level, a new need emerges according to Maslow. There is now a need to be approved by other people, a need for love and respect. The advertising industry finds this a very useful area for its machinations
«If you want people to look at you admiringly, or enviously, you have to wear Jay boy Jeans - no-one else’s will do! » That is the message, in effect.
Or the advertiser might be trying to persuade you to buy a new car. «This is the tastiest and the best sports car in the market. It is faster, sleeker, more enviable, than anything else in the world. If you haven’t got one, or don’t get one pretty soon, the rest of the world is going to see you as a dead duck! » 
And when we are largely satisfied at this social level, according to Maslow we simply move on to egocentricity. We all have egos, but what is an ego? It is a love of self. We look into the mirror and hopefully like what we see. 
Of course, that is not only in physical terms. We hunger for self-respect now that our lower level needs have been largely satisfied. That is another happy hunting-ground for the advertising agencies, for example «Diamonds are forever», or «Use Real Results from Diana Cosmetics! It fights wrinkles fast!»
According to Maslow the ultimate need is for fulfillment. This would no doubt come when we have all that the advertisers say we so desperately need. For most of us it seems that day will never come!