As people acquired more televisions, as we got wealthier and House had more than one TV, in the early days of television, the whole family would gather around the single TV set. That eventually changed. A lot of people had enough money in the price of TVs fell so that people could have more than one television. And so what happened is that people could watch their own shows. This simple change changed radically what was available to watch because in the old days, you had to make something that was neutral enough that no one would veto it. Then suddenly you could customize material to what people wanted to watch. You don't just get the middling choice, the average sort of dull choice.
Author and Advertising Executive Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy talks about his book Alchemy with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Sutherland makes the case for the magic (yes, magic!) of advertising and branding in helping markets work well. This is a wide-ranging conversation on consumer choice, public policy, travel, real estate, and corporate decision-making using insights from behavioral economics and decades of experience in the world of advertising.