We modern consumers pay twice for things—once by spending our time watching the television advertisement and again when we buy the product.

… Human beings did not suddenly become materialistic. We have always been desirous of things. We have just not had many of them until quite recently.

By adding value to material, by adding meaning to objects, by branding things, advertising performs a role historically associated with religion. … If we craved objects and knew what they meant, there would be no need to add meaning through advertising. We would gather, use, toss out, or hoard based on some inner sense of value. But we don’t. We don’t know what to gather…

—Adapted from James B. Twitchell, For Shame