PrepTest 141, Section 1, Question 17
Some critics of advertising have assumed that the(423 more words not shown)
The author states that Marcuse(3 more words not shown)
- Abase many of(7 more words not shown)
- Bappeal to people's(8 more words not shown)
- Care restricted to(6 more words not shown)
- Dexaggerate the consumer's(4 more words not shown)
- Edeny that the(11 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Follow Marcuse's chain: people have real needs, advertising associates those needs with products, and people acquire a supposed need for the products themselves. The perfume example makes the move concrete. Wanting sex or a relationship is one thing; treating perfume as the route to that fulfillment is another.
What we’re looking for
We're being asked what Marcuse believes advertisers do. Keep his account separate from the author's later defense of consumers.
Working the answers
- A
Psychological techniques are mentioned, but psychological research findings are not. It may sound plausible that advertisers use research; that is an extra claim about where their methods come from.
- BCorrect
The second paragraph says advertising “appropriates these needs” and forges associations between them and consumer items. Those are real needs at the start of the chain. The resulting supposed need for the product is what Marcuse calls false.
- C
Regulations prohibiting misinformation appear in the fourth paragraph as part of the author's response. The author does not attribute this point to Marcuse. A sentence being present is not enough when the question specifies its speaker.
- D
Marcuse's account treats advertising as manipulating people's needs, not exaggerating their need to make independent decisions. Consumer autonomy becomes the author's objection to his followers.
- E
Marcuse calls the manufactured needs false. We are not told that advertisers make an explicit claim denying that those needs are less real. This adds a position for the advertisers themselves.
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