a) Drawing upon theories, concepts, or examples from the course, describe how advertising and consumer society can be said to prove that consumers are susceptible to being influenced and exploited "from above" by advertisers and commercial forces [worth 5 marks].

b) Then, again drawing upon theories, concepts, or examples from the course, describe how advertising and consumer society can be said to prove that consumers are capable of opposing or influencing advertisers and commercial forces "from below" [worth 5 marks].

c) Is our consumer society today more a product of advertising and consumerism as "top-down" systems, dictating to consumers what they should desire, purchase, etc. or otherwise taking advantage of and exploiting them? Or is our consumer society better understood as a reflection of consumerism working from the "bottom-up," with consumers resisting and fooling advertisers and commercial forces, or else imposing their desires and interests on the latter? (You can argue both sides, too.) [worth 5 marks]

Note: you do not need to provide an introduction, conclusion, title, or citations and a works cited page (unless you quote or reproduce text from the PowerPoint slides or readings without rewording or paraphrasing, in which case you must provide citations and a works cited page using APA citation style).

You may use paragraph breakers, headings, bullets, or numbers to separate the different parts of your answer, but point-form replies are discouraged.