Fresh Breath - does it really matter?

Today in class we learned the aims of marketing and the role advertising plays.
One of the aims of marketing was to create exchanges that satisfy the perceived needs, wants, and objectives of individuals and organizations.

An when discussing advertising role in the promotion part of marketing, we looked at the PERCEPTION of a need. Does advertising HELP the perception of needs/wants or CREATE it out of nothing?

The example for this post is hygiene products. When we were learning about the history of advertising through american society, the Roaring 20s was a time when cleanliness products were advertised as a part of basic necessity. In other words, if body odor or bad breath didn't bother before, it SHOULD now....so use our product.

This has translates into the standard of "freshness" that we have now...

Look at this Eclipse gum commercial:



Besides being hilarious (hahaha), this commercial shows how advertising 1.) made us feel bad if we had bad breath, 2.) presented us with the "only" solution, and 3.)set their brand apart from others - "natural germ killers"...

This ad also reinforces satisfaction, because this campaign always shows a 2nd encounter...the first guy who had bad breath is now enjoying the gum, and now recognizes the error of his stinky ways.

so it reminded you why you bought it in the first place...
and enables you to persuade others about it.

and now gum is something that many of us (me!) can't live without.