Does advertising influence people?

Nowadays, we are surrounded by lots of adverts, sprawled in a huge variety of places, not only physical but also the ones which are on many online webs. The fact is, are we aware of this?

Perhaps, older people who have lived in the past, which was partly free of advertising, are more conscientious of this, but young people, like me, who have born in the twenty-one century, don’t appreciate this dangerous environment. In addition, this population is the most influenceable, and it is because we try to be up to the most recent trends, and this involves attending advertising of the big brands.

From my perspective, modern societies are lead by the ones who can make themselves visible, popularity is the most powerful weapon. Nevertheless, visibility is linked to money, and this is the reason why networks like "YouTube" can offer free content or brands have invented a lot of marketing methods.

Taking that into account, it is reasonable to think that we are totally influenced by advertising, if not, why would brands spend piles of money on publicity?

So, the heart of the matter is if there are limits and we are secure and able to deal with this, in order to maintain our will and freedom. In my opinion, two actions must be taken, the one is to regulate companies, because sometimes they are too invasive, and the other depends on us because we have the last word when a product is bought.