The Unfulfilled Need

Hello All,

This post may seem a little academic in its content because it is a paper I wrote this past semester. Even though I do not normally post essays, this topic has been on my mind and in my conversations with a few close friends lately. I battled with myself about posting it for a few weeks, but I am choosing to share it with you now. I hope that in the end, you consider it worth the time that it took you to read it.

Thank you again for stopping by and feedback is always appreciated. Peace.


According to British historian Arnold Toynbee, advertising has made Americans materialistic, greedy, overly acquisitive and insincere, but left them personally and spiritually unfulfilled. I agree with this statement because advertising urges consumers to adopt a need that can never truly be fulfilled. This need creates a void within each person that can never be satiated by material items, yet causes us to look to our environment for satisfaction. This environmental focus results in the neglecting of natural internal resources that are better suited to satisfy our desires. Through this essay, I argue that advertising has caused Americans to become increasingly negative and materialistic while leaving them personally and spiritually unfulfilled.

The first argument that supports the belief that advertising has harmed Americans is that advertising creates a need that can never be fulfilled. According to Zinkhan (1994), “advertising provides a powerful way to communicate symbols…[and] values” to mass audiences (p. 1). The main value that is represented in advertising is materialism which each consumer is encouraged to adopt. Due to the fact that each generation creates new requirements for what is needed to survive in the current society, materialism has quickly emerged as the medium through which these needs are focused on and attained (Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981). This is an effective medium for these desires because materialism is focused on the mantra “more is better.” Once a desire is satisfied and passes through this medium, our focus drifts to our next desire or perceived requirement that we need to live comfortably.

These desires are so vast that our thoughts and actions are now at the mercy of our materialism and propel us into addictive habits that result in consumption for the sake of consumption (Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1981). In other words, individuals in our society no longer engage in consuming behaviors to satisfy their basic physiological and psychological needs, they engage in order to satisfy their habit. Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton (1981), have labeled this type of behavior as “terminal materialism [which] refers to this runaway habit of possession where consumption becomes an end in itself” (p. 10). Consumers who fall victim to terminal materialism feel vulnerable and helpless and often incorrectly attribute these feelings to various life events. This self-induced vulnerability is usually quelled by attaining a desire that was instilled by advertising. However, this ultimately results in reinforcement of terminal materialism and any satisfaction gained decreases with each purchase.

The second argument that evidences the negative impact of advertising on Americans is the idea that consumers are incomplete without new products. According to Zinkhan & Prenshaw (1994), advertising portrays visions of the good life, which serves as a stimulant to consumption behavior. However, this “good life” has created a rigid division between those who have material items and those who do not (Zinkhan, 1994). The “have nots” spend their time longing to earn enough money in order to attain the good life and believe that their lives will not be adequate until they do. They often look upon the “haves” with extreme jealousy and rage that motivates them to strive to gain the material good life (Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton, 1978).

Conversely, those who are considered to have the good life actually spend most of their time reassuring themselves that they are only a few resources short from living a good life and focus on seeking out these resources. There has been a loss of contentment in society due to the fact that neither group is ever satisfied in their materialism. Although materialism is at the root of this discontent, Americans have been so conditioned to seek contentment in the external world that they turn to advertising to solve these woes. This cycle plagues our society in such a way that we are not only the victims of materialism; we have also become its biggest promoters.

The third argument references how terminal materialism has caused American society to lose sight of what is important in life and to seek satisfaction externally. Since advertising has Americans convinced that materialism helps to satisfy biological and psychological needs, they have lost the key to happiness and now rely on material goods for contentment. Additionally, people with a high need for materialism are found to have low life satisfaction and as a result American society is now plagued by a high quantity of material goods, but a low quality of life (Sirgy, Lee, Kosenko, Meadow, Rahtz, Cicic, Jin, Yarsuvat, Blenkhorn, & Wright, 1998). Our society’s happiness is contingent on an industry whose main motive is not selling products that will make its consumers happy, but is making consumers believe that products will make them happy. This slight distinction has resulted in a low level of spiritual and personal fulfillment that will only continue to decline unless the direction of this phenomenon is changed.

Although this seems like a dismal situation, the solution to this problem is not eliminating materialism from the world, but is reframing the way that people view advertising and materialism. Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton (1978), distinguished the current form of terminal materialism from a second form called “instrumental materialism,” that provides an escape from this degenerative cycle. Instrumental materialism transitions the focus from products being valued as things to products serving as a means for achieving some other end (Zinkahn, 1994). In other words, the objects no longer represent the desires themselves; they represent the tools with which the desires are achieved. Material goods help people accomplish goals in “health, education, family, work, social relationships, community, neighborhood, and so on” (Sirgy, et al., 1998, p. 141).

Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton (1981), state that “the only weapon we have against the deadly power of terminal materialism is the human ability to create meaning” (p. 235). In order to create this meaning, we as Americans must look beyond what we desire from the environment and recognize the contentment contained within ourselves. Once we rediscover this contentment, we will no longer seek meaning from materialism; we will be able to assign meaning to the materials themselves. By redirecting our focus, products will no longer be cherished for the material comfort that they provide, but for the information that they communicate about the owner and his/her relationships with others (Zinkham, 1994).

In conclusion, this essay argued that advertising has caused Americans to become increasingly materialistic in exchange for personal and spiritual fulfillment. I evidenced this statement by showing how advertising creates a need that can never be fulfilled. This need is created by advertisements that constantly tell consumers that they are incomplete without new products. This sense of incompletion has caused Americans to lose sight of what is truly important in life and to seek satisfaction externally. Although the current impact of advertising on society is negative, the power to change this situation lies in the hands of the consumers. By regarding material possessions as a means to achieve life goals, rather than regarding them as the goals themselves, consumers can transcend the lure of terminal materialism. Through this transcendence, American society may be able to rediscover the fulfillment that can be found in the spiritual aspect of human existence.