For any product, there are people who who would never buy it, and people who would buy it, whether regularly or not. Those would not be influenced by advertising. Between those two groups, there are the undecided, who may or may not buy the product. It is this group that advertisers are trying to reach. Such action is legitimate, provided the businessmen are honest about their product. Some ambiguity in the ads is allowed, as exactitude may be wordy and distracting to the intended audience.

Dishonest businessmen would stretch the limits, taking advantage of the people’s ignorance. That is not to say they take advantage of the fools. Our time and efforts are limited, and we cannot know everything. We all direct our resources to the most pressing matters, and allow "waste" in the the small issues, where we are not as careful.

As you see, people as a group are doomed. There will always be some who will try to take advantage of the ignorance of the many. The situation is different on an individual level. Some will spend the time and effort to educate themselves, so as to be better customers, so as to spend their money intelligently.

Knowledge will give you defenses against what you know something about or will take the time to learn. Some people will not take the time and what can you do about them. But even a knowledgeable person cannot be knowledgeable about everything. But there is another study for the mind that can help.

Classically it was called rhetoric. It is a study of arguments. The ancient Greeks numbered different arguments and made it clear why we shouldn’t listen to them but we so often do. Some of these arguments are:

the argument of the masses: We do or thing something because everyone else does it. You have heard this in commercials all the time…98% of the people when asked…

the argument of authority: we should because he does or says we should. In commercials you see the argument that some great sports figure (or team) drinks gatorade so you should too…

Sometimes I sit and watch commercials and look for the arguments which are also knows as fallacies. You will see appeals to sex, age, exclusivity, and money most frequently. They are "hooks" and also a warning sign not to be hooked and to watch out for what is not said.

Rhetoric is also a study of how things can be said to be convincing. I have heard it said that the original "3 R s" were reading, writing, and rhetoric (not arithmetic.) It was once an important and fundamental study that has been extensively downplayed for over 50 years. It is not surprising that this is also period during which advertising has developed such a hold over people. The advertising today would have been scoffed at by people 100 years ago.

The mind is capable if properly taught and quite susceptible if not.