Jerry has raised a very interesting issue in his analysis of advertising. I
don't think Marx ever discussed this issue, probably because it was not
nearly as important a phenomenon then as it is now (except in the public
spaces of larger cities), and because it is relatively concrete. The only
systematic analysis of advertising from a Marxist perspective which I've seen
is Ben Fine's in 'The World of Consumption.'
I think (and this is an uninformed guess) that advertising may increase
monopoly power both by inducing additional demand for a particular good, and
by shifting demand from competitors producing the same kind of good. Hence
the possibility of a reduction in the value of labour power, which may be
analysed very easily from the point of view of the 'new approach', for
example.
Alfredo Saad Filho
South Bank University Business School
103 Borough Road, London SE1 0AA
email: asfilho@aol.com