&gt; It might not be part of production per se, but it&#x27;s necessary for getting the item to the buyer. Advertisement, much less so.<p>Is that so? How do you figure? How do you get an item to a buyer that will never be a buyer because he never heard of your product?<p>&gt; As a consumer why should I care whether brand X sells -- except if I&#x27;m its owner?<p>Well, thank you for unearthing what I believe is the crux of the question so concisely.<p>Let me put a twist on your question: As an employee, why should you care if the company you work for sells?<p>Society is not made of people who are 100% consumers.<p>People need to sell stuff to make a living. Advertising is a way to sell stuff.<p>I don&#x27;t like to pigeonhole people, but I&#x27;ve heard the arguments you&#x27;re making a million times. Almost invariably, they came from people who&#x27;d never had to sell anything themselves to make a living.<p>Go ahead an try to sell people &quot;crappy products&quot; with advertising. See if they buy. What you&#x27;ll discover is that people don&#x27;t buy crappy products. They buy &quot;good enough&quot; products. Sorry people&#x27;s standards aren&#x27;t up to yours.<p>We can argue until the sun comes down about what is &quot;essential&quot; or &quot;beneficial&quot; to society, but that&#x27;s entirely subjective.<p>I also don&#x27;t understand the very common belief expressed around here that it would somehow be a good idea if humanity were reduced to its &quot;essentials&quot; or to stuff that they &quot;really need&quot;. Art isn&#x27;t essential. The internet isn&#x27;t essential. Comfort isn&#x27;t essential. Entertainment isn&#x27;t essential.