"A truly great product sells itself" is one of the most persistent myths engineers believe.
I don't understand how people can still believe this when it's so obviously false. It's a nice story, that if you make something great you'll get what you deserve. That sounds fair, but there's no reason to believe the market works this way.
A "truly great product" that no one (or not enough people) know about will go out of business and disappear.
That's completely absurd. How can a product "sell itself" if nobody knows it exists, or knows how great it is? How do they find out those things? Well, in part, by advertising.
I heartily agree that some advertising is manipulative and anti-social... but I can't buy this "all advertising is just manipulation" stuff.
I don't understand how people can still believe this when it's so obviously false. It's a nice story, that if you make something great you'll get what you deserve. That sounds fair, but there's no reason to believe the market works this way.
A "truly great product" that no one (or not enough people) know about will go out of business and disappear.
Good advertising is just communication.