In 1957 Vance Packard published The Hidden Persuaders, his famous book about advertising techniques, in which he claimed that the products advertised, taken together, promised to fulfill eight “compelling needs”:

• Emotional Security
• Reassurance of worth
• Ego gratification
• Creative outlets
• Love objects
• Sense of power
• Roots
• Immortality

How much has changed? To what degree is the world of social media the inheritor of 1950s advertising as the means by which these needs are fulfilled?