[hoophoop]

> there is nothing wrong with advertising per se, it's a natural part of a free market economy.

There is plenty wrong. Even Adam Smith's purely theoretical concept of "free market" requires buyers and sellers to be purely rational actors and be fully and correctly informed.

Advertising has one goal: making customers less rational and more biased towards a given product.

[yholio]

While that is true to some degree, the primary motivation of advertising is to close the information gap, to make sure customers know about your product.