[dgudkov]

As my ex-colleague says "Any advertisement is propaganda".

[hapticmonkey]

I prefer David Foster Wallace's description of advertising:

"It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase.”

[lozf]

I always liked: "Advertising robs you of your dignity, and sells it back to you at the price of the product."

[TheOtherHobbes]

With the arguable exception of therapy/counselling, you can never retrieve your dignity and self-worth by buying a product.

So all it really does is sell the promise.

[adamsea]

True. As a side point, IMHO, therapy and counseling are not products.

They’re services, and, even more so, should be a service bound by a medical code of ethics, which, since the healing professions go way back, imho makes therapy and counseling distinct from many other services.

:)

[rexpop]

So advertisements deplete dignity, with no recompense or amelioration? No wonder our society's replete with indignity.

[cassianoleal]

I believe in most Latin languages there isn't a separate word.

At least in Portuguese and Spanish, both advertisement and propaganda are simply "propaganda".

[yesenadam]

Not true. In spanish, "ad" is usually anuncio, or sometimes comercial or publicidad. Propaganda can also be used, but is less common than those i think, I've never heard it used.

I once read an original edition of Bernays' Propaganda (1928) with its title in a jaunty typeface on the cover, before the word had a negative connotation.

Pic of its cover here: https://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/edward--bernays/p...

[cassianoleal]

I have definitely heard "propaganda" in South American Spanish-speaking countries. Perhaps a regional quirk?

[rbanffy]

You can also use "publicidade" in Portuguese, but "propaganda" is not used exclusively for "political propaganda".

[rexpop]

And all propaganda is political.