Advertising has long been understood as a tool of capitalism.

A system designed to sell products, maximise profit, and sustain economic growth.

But what if advertising is not just selling products?

What if it is also producing something else?

As Dallas Smythe (1981, p.242) argues, what is really being sold is not just goods, but audiences.

Our attention becomes the commodity.

The Marketplace of Attention

In today’s digital environment, this process has intensified.

Nicholas Holm (2017, p.134–136) explains how platforms track behaviour through clicks, likes, shares, and surveillance systems such as cookies.

These systems build detailed profiles of users.

Not for the users themselves, but for the market.

What is being traded is not just space for advertising.

It is people.

Agency Inside the System

At this point, it might seem like audiences are completely controlled.

But that is not entirely true.

People engage with media for their own reasons.

As Jensen (2002, p.157, as cited in Holm, 2017, p.185) notes, audiences actively use media to fulfil needs, from information to identity to connection.

And sometimes, audiences resist.

The #McDStories campaign is a clear example. Instead of reinforcing brand identity, people used it to share negative experiences with McDonald’s (Hill, 2012).

The message was not controlled.

It was redefined.

So yes, audiences have agency.

But that agency exists within a structured system.

You are free to choose.

But what you are choosing from has already been shaped.

The System That Shapes Meaning

Advertising does not just sell products.

It produces meaning.

It creates environments where identity feels clear, where belonging feels available, and where consumption feels like a path to fulfilment.

This is what Michael Schudson (1986, p.230) describes as capitalist realism, a worldview where consumer choice is framed as freedom, identity, and satisfaction.

But these meanings are not neutral.

They are selective.

They prioritise certain values while excluding others.

And over time, these patterns begin to feel natural.

Normal.

Expected.

Creativity, Expression, and Constraint

There is another layer to this system.

Not everyone working in advertising is simply enforcing it.

Some are trying to express something meaningful.

In Art & Copy (Kalamut, 2021), Hal Riney’s work is described as reflecting a vision of life shaped by his own experiences and desires.

In that sense, advertising can resemble art.

But it is never fully autonomous.

As Holm (2017, p.165–168) argues, creativity in advertising becomes an economic resource, shaped by clients, budgets, and objectives.

Even expression operates within constraint.

Control Without Force

What makes advertising powerful is not that it forces behaviour.

It is that it shapes the environment in which behaviour happens.

It defines what feels desirable.
What feels normal.
What feels possible.

It doesn’t tell you who to be.

It offers identities that feel close enough to accept.

And when those identities align with existing desires, they are rarely questioned.

The System That Remains

Advertising is often framed as a choice or manipulation.

But it is neither of those things alone.

It is a system that:

• structures meaning
• organises identity
• and embeds consumerism into everyday life

Even when audiences resist, even when creatives push boundaries, the broader system continues to operate.

It adapts.

It absorbs.

It persists.

So the next time you scroll, click, or pause on an ad, consider this: You are not just watching. You are part of what is being produced. Not only as a consumer. But as an identity in the making.