Sex, Lies and Advertising Questions for Article     These questions are designed to make you think and to get you to use and think about the assumptions about the individual and the world used in the traditional microeconomic model

Sex, Lies and Advertising

Questions for Article

These questions are designed to make you think and to get you to use and think about the assumptions about the individual and the world used in the traditional microeconomic model.  They cannot be satisfactorily answered by short one liners or shallow surface analysis.  The longer answer, one which utilizes the assumptions made in class and in the book, will get the better grade.

1. Briefly outline the theory of Oligopoly as discussed in the text and in class.  Give me an example of what is sold, and who the buyers are.  Tell me what distortions of the Restrictive Economic Assumptions occur to allow Oligopolies to exist.

2. Looking at the article “Sex, Lies and Advertising”, by Gloria Steinem, identify the product for sale, and who the buyers are.  Explain.  (Hint: The product is NOT the magazine, and the buyers are NOT the subscribers).

3. Finally, think about magazine and newspapers as distributors of knowledge, and reflect on how the oligopolistic nature of the media affects consumers’ ability to be rational and to make good decisions.