Advertising may be one of the essential marketing tools available to the corporate sector today, but it is certainly not the most ethical one. Advertising has come under attack from various sections of society because of the images it projects and the way they ultimately affect all of us. If we carefully analyze advertising campaigns and techniques, we would notice that advertising is intricately connected with the principle of consumption. Consumers would buy anything that advertisements say is good for them, including culture and values.
             In much the same way as a consumer would be forced to buy a product, media today is being used to effectively transform cultural values and sell images that are often misleading. Associate a good-looking guy with a cigarette, and you send a message to the public- smoking is the "in" thing. Even though we all know smoking is injurious to health, we would still be tempted to give it a try based on the images that advertisements project. In PBS's Merchants of Cool, critics thrash advertising for promoting false values. Media critic Mark Crispin Miller criticizes advertising techniques because they influence culture and create anxiety among youth. He says: "You know, advertising has always sold anxiety, and it certainly sells anxiety to the young. It's always telling them that they are not thin enough, they're not pretty enough, they don't have the right friends, or they have no friends...they're losers unless they're cool."
             Advertising affects our perceptions and values so much that what we have in the shape of culture today is simply an advertisement-induced version of culture that lacks authenticity and gives rise to images that are anything but genuine. Advertisements no longer give us a chance to develop our authentic self; instead, we try to be like one of the persons we see
             in ads. For example, every girl would love to dress up like
             Britney Spears, even if she doesn't particularly like ...