[imgabe]

In the first case, you know you need some product, but not necessarily which one. You need a pair of shoes, but are you going to get Reeboks, Nike, Asics, or what? They all serve the need you originally had, advertising is just directing you towards one or the other.

[commentzorro]

I hate it when style items like shoes are used as an example. Once you're out of your teens shopping for shoes just isn't much of an issue in real life. Real life is more like, "I need a vacuum. It needs these properties: canister, quiet, light, and a beater brush." No ad is really going to give you this information. Any ad showing a vacuum is just wasting your time. You're going to go to an objective site to compare products, not click through to some random site and purchase.

And advertisers know this so we get a host a stupid ads trying to convince you that one flavor of sugar water is better than another. Or that this poop inducing yogurt is better than that. In other words, effective ads rely on trickery to get you to think style is more important than substance.

[chrismcb]

I need a vacuum cleaner. I know a couple of companies, I research their vacuums. Still not sure what I want, then I see an add for foobar vacuums... Never heard of them, let me go research them too. By the way, for YOU, shopping for shoes isn't much of an issue, but that isn't true for a lot of other people. The other thing is a lot of people don't spend their time "going to an objective site"