Decoding advertisements

I read the revised version of Decoding advertisements first 3 pages where the author Judith Williamson talks about changes and similarities in society from when she wrote the original book. She comments on how many worries and theories she had about the development in manipulative advertising agencies using semiotics to control people are becoming true and constantly clearer. I found the whole text incredibly interesting but the most straight to the point part was right at the end when she said 'Advertisements intend to make us feel we are lacking; it would be terrible if 'theoretical' books about advertisements had the same effect'. The idea being she was worried society was forcefully dumbing people down so much they felt their opinions weren't as valid as the ones they read in books. She comments on how capitalist society is giving us such a low self esteem with its sneaky tactics of control that we no longer trust our own judgement and opinion. I completely agree with this idea that advertising is ruining our confidence and making us feel inadequate in parts of our lives that don't actually have any real effect on us until judged by other people. An example of this would be Wonderbra advertisements, sexualising the role of women and making any woman not able to live up to the in control, 'perfect looking', housewife stereotype.