It seems advertising and marketing although no longer at the point of being an artform like it was in the 70's and 80's, seem to have become a lot more subtle in the last few years, but still ever present, try to pedal us stuff and play on our insecurities. One such thing at the moment is protein powders to young people who really don't need them, on the premise it will see them to some image of physical perfection , I'm not sure they even know what they are buying when they come in my store or at least what it does, and the dangers of having to much, and then I saw all the adverts on youtube, and realised the advertising machine was still as powerful as ever, influencing people daily.

So my questions are as follows.. you can answer them specifically to clothes

Can things just be sold on merit, do they have to go along with a lifestyle? How important is popular culture to everyday people? What are the goal nowadays? Still selling sex? And with the new lifestyle explosions we've had in the last 5-10 years thanks to the net, can mass-marketing work like it used to? Also, are you still effected by advertising, or like with many people who picked up on snake-oil salesmen many moons ago?

And one question do you think blogs like Ivy Style, and the more I-genty ones replace, better or worsen, the image of the brands they're looking to sell their 'real world' advertising too?