ing reflects this. We are in the phase of a relatively rapid distribution of what are called "consumer goods," and advertising, with its emphasis on "bringing the good things of life," is taken as central for this reason (Williams 335).
Williams says, however, that for him this means that we are not materialist enough and that this is a failure in social meanings, values, and ideals. He says that we can see in our advertising that the material object being sold is never enough, for advertising sells qualities beyond the object itself, promising us we will be more beautiful, healthier, and happier if we buy a certain product. Advertising, he says, sells a pattern of fantasy:
The short description of the pattern we have is magic: a highly organized and professional system of magical inducements and satisfactions, functionally very similar to magical systems in simpler societies, but rather strangely
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