Advertising is designed to encourage the desire to purchase goods and services, but it goes much deeper than that: advertising is an effective system of manipulation that distorts the mentalities of those who are subjected to it. It shapes people's view of the world and distorts their connections to each other. Therefore, advertising not only shapes their personal values, but also distorts them until their principles no longer come from them. So, in my opinion, advertising, unless it is deeply rooted in high ethical standards, destroys any concept of community, common morality or deep connection. Advertising offers consumers products and services that they believe are necessary to be loved, beautiful, happy, and accomplished. Without these “necessities,” we feel judged, excluded and criticized. However, these possessions make us hate ourselves. Subsequently, we lose our sense of importance and have difficulty accepting love and friendship from the people around us. People begin to shy away from meaningful relationships and commitments, choosing instead to fill their personal emptiness with displays of power that they obtain through their material possessions. The society in which we live reduces us to things; it diminishes our personal relationships and presents relationships as transactions, only desirable if there is something to be gained. These ideas can be found in John Kavanaugh's book, Following Christ in a Consumer Society, in which Kavanaugh gives a name to the American way of life: the "commodity form." The commodity form valorizes products, marketing, and consumption while promoting a strategic manipulation whereby more possessions equal increased happiness. In the commodity form, people are seen as "replaceable and marketable" objects (Kavanaugh 26)....... middle of paper...... seek money to spend it, to be living mannequins for material adornments, our value is determined by what we have or what we lack, rather than by who we are, what we do, or what we know. People become accustomed to the intrusion of advertising into their consciousness and therefore fail to protect themselves, or worse yet, their children from seduction. Convinced that their self-esteem rests on the latest cell phone, children are already on the path to spiritual dissatisfaction and resentment, as well as a perception of diminished self-worth, and low self-esteem grows. accompanied by low involvement in the community. Empty, hollow words, which testify to a personal emptiness filled by the pursuit of things. Moving away from the need for things is at least a start to allowing people to communicate and then, once they have communicated, beginning to solve real problems in their homes, their communities, their nation and the world..