Advertising in the US doesn&#x27;t create demand. It just moves it around.<p>America is spent out. The US personal savings rate is under 5%. Everything else gets spent, and the saved money gets spent later.  There&#x27;s no &quot;pent-up demand&quot; waiting to be unlocked by advertising.<p>Advertising is thus a net lose for Americans. All that effort adds to cost.  For some products, including movies, long distance phone service, and many prescription drugs, the advertising cost exceeds the manufacturing cost.<p>This is an argument for a tax on advertising.  Advertising expenses should not be deductible business expenses at all.<p>Note that neither Amazon nor WalMart advertises much, compared to other large businesses.  Target spends more on ads than WalMart does, although WalMart is much bigger.