They are driven by how clever they can be and how much money is involved. Their careers are all-important and rarely do they stop to think about what the product or service they are advertising actually means to the end customer or how valued it is in the greater scheme of things.

Having had a media-related background myself in the past, I learned from this and find the whole concept of advertising much more interesting and important than the mainstream media news or film we are spoon-fed these days. We are typecast into social and economic groups, they have feedback sessions to discover if that is what a particular group wants to aspire to, and they do their utmost to create a dream for us that we can hope to aspire to, whether we actually need the product or not.

In today's disposable and throw-away culture, this seems to be a more and more demanding task.

To achieve this, the advertising industry uses all methods of psychology; guilt, euphoria, empowerment and other tactics, to ensure we buy into their latest products.

Personally, I have never been influenced to buy a product based on an advert. Many people do, but my concern is with those who believe everything they see and read about the products advertised by marketing executives and companies.

Is their agenda really to inform us, and give us a product that is useful and enhances our lives?

Or are they merely in it for what they can sell it for? I know where my thoughts lie on the matter.

Kevin Knott,
Hartlepool.
(This is part of a series of letters which Kevin asked to be published after his death).