Persuaders

After watching The Persuaders and learning about the different tactics of manipulation they use I began to wonder if this would change the way I looked at advertising industry. I feel like now I know all the secrets, but yet I am still buying into them. It's kind of like you know you're getting cheated on by a significant other, but you're still dating him/her. I've been thinking about it a lot lately and trying to decide if it is the result of advertising and persuasion which make us constantly yearn for more things, or if it just embedded into use innately. Simply put- is it society which makes us consumers or are we born with it? Just a thought I was pondering.