In their advertising, business nowadays usually emphasize that their products are new in some way. Why is this? Do you think it is a positive or negative development?

There is no

such

a time in history that the media and entertainment have become so prevailing among

people

as it is today, and they have almost become

one

of the most important carriers of all types of commerce. Goods and services may still be well-known without any promotion in the past but now, since there are too many of them, advertising becomes the

one

-and-only if any

businesses

want themselves to thrive in the market. But what is funny is that, if you take a good look at all the advertisements, you may wonder why almost all brands or manufacturers emphasize that their

products

are new in some

way

. Here comes the reason; it is human nature that forces all advertisers to form

this

impression (sometimes the illusion) on their potential customers. If we put it in terms of economics, we may find out the phenomenon termed “diminishing marginal utility”, that

people

are hard-wired to become less satisfied with what they possess after a while even if there is nothing wrong with the latter. That means, no matter how good and how durable a product is,

people

may reduce their obsession with their properties after a period of use and would desire a substitute if they had a chance to see

one

.

This

one

may not be better than the

last

, but it has to be new since it is meant to satisfy

people

's demand for freshness.

This

is good news to

businesses

, as they may find the perfect

way

to sell their goods by fetching

this

psychology, and the

way

is to focus on innovation. If innovation is hard, it may work for

businesses

to “zoom in” on the subtle, insignificant new things of their

products

through advertising. That seems a cost-and-time-efficient

way

to increase their sales. Like most things, I would believe

this

phenomenon is neither too good nor bad; the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Some may worry that

this

too much emphasis on “new”

products

is the culprit behind the high level of consumerism, and that may lead to a large amount of waste, since

people

may throw away their still in-use

products

and chase for the excitement of owning a new

one

.

However

, the take-home message is that consumerism happens anyway, determined by multiple factors

such

as the booming of industrialization or consumer desires, among which advertising is just

one

on the surface.

On the other hand

, it seems persuasive for some to reckon that

this

trend may

finally

force companies to innovate, since they may not forever fool their consumers, but

instead

need at least make something new to convince the market. But knowing that our human being as a whole is greedy and indolent inside,

this

is

also

unlikely to happen. Rather than true innovations,

businesses

may wind up building a more attractive promotion system, exaggerating every subtlety they have changed but improve some, say, parameters at most. In conclusion, I would believe that it is the recognition of human nature that makes

businesses

focus on advertising how “new” their

products

are, and

this

is just a normal trend.

Instead

of believing the mere speculations, we’d better wait and see what is going

next

in the future.