In a competitive economy, the consumer usually has the choice of several different brands of the same product. Yet underneath their labels, these products are often nearly identical. Thus, manufacturers are confronted with a problem — how to keep sales high enough to stay in business. Manufacturers solve this problem by advertising. Through advertising, each manufacturing company tries to convince consumers that its product is special. To do this, the company tries to appeal to consumers in various ways. In fact, advertisements may be classified into three types according to the kind of appeals they use. One type of advertisement tries to appeal to the consumer’s reasoning mind. It may offer a claim that seems scientific. For example, it may say that dentists recommend Flash toothpaste, or it may declare that Woof dog food contains a special, vitamin-rich ingredient known as K-9. In selling a product, the truth of advertising may be less important than the appearance of truth. A scientific approach gives the appearance of truth. Another type of advertisement tries to amuse the potential buyer. Products that are essentially boring, such as cleaning powder, are often advertised in an amusing manner. One way of doing this is to make the products appear alive. The advertiser may draw little cartoon eyes, arms, and legs on the cans of cleaning powder and have the resulting figures scrub the sink. Advertisers believe that consumers are likely to remember and buy products that they associate with fun. Associating the product with something pleasant is the technique of the third type of appeal. In this class are ads that suggest that the product will satisfy some basic human desires, like the desire to be admired by other people. This appeal is sometimes strengthened by hiring a famous person to endorse the product. Seeing the famous person, the consumer is supposed to reason thus: Everyone admires Judson Smith the great football star. Therefore, if I use Buck-worthy bank traveler’s check, everyone will admire me too. One only needs to look through a magazine or watch an hour of TV in order to see examples of these three different advertising strategies.