Multinational TV Commercials: Reality or Simulation of Happiness and Ideals?
Costas A. Petrakis, Ioanna Gavriel Ioakeimidou, Marina-Selini Katsaiti

Abstract
In the modern world, the so-called art of advertising promotes and is a part of globalisation. Advertising fulfils the desire to consume by creating “ideal” stereotypes of happy and successful individuals. As promoted and advertised by the media, success has become a synonym for money, consumption, and power. As presented in advertisements, the ideological strength of happiness is a socio-historic parameter. Happiness is quantifiable, according to Baudrillard (1970), and can be reproduced by values incorporated in the consumption of goods of services. Through theoretical and secondary qualitative and quantitative analysis, this study attempts to test the hypothesis that because of quantification, individuals directly link the consumption of goods with the adoption of the values and “ideals” embodied by the goods.

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