Galbraith revisited: advertising in non-affluent societies

The first part of the paper challenges J.K. Galbraith's view of advertising as: (i) a problem solely of affluent societies; and (ii) a close correlate of rising levels of income. It is shown that advertising is far from insignificant in poor countries and that it correlates only weakly with rising levels of national affluence. In the second part we suggest, furthermore, that advertising in poor countries is likely to have effects that are significantly different from those in rich countries, and that these warrant further research.