Buying viral products are hard. Today, there are a lot of popular consumer goods that are sold out everywhere and I agree that it mostly happens due to the power of advertising and not the real need of the society. I think people in this era has developed a negative habit of comsumerisme, and with this habit being everywhere, advertising can become a dangerous weapon for companies to easily convince people to buy products.
The main reason for my opinion is based on advertising itself and how ridiculously effective it is. The easiest example I can think of is how some companies use artists and K-pop idols to promote their products. Just for this reason alone, a lot of fans would go out their way just to buy a product their idols promoted without thinking if it’s actually something they need. Another example is that when a product goes viral after an advertisment and people start experiencing FOMO. They will start swarming to buy it just because of that feeling of FOMO. That is the power of advertisment.
But despite being powerful, there is also a limit to advertisment. It is when advertisment meets people with a clear mind on what they want and what they need, because we cant ignore the fact that there are still a lot of people with that clear mindset. For instance, people with a fixed mindset on their financial management and self control. I believe people like that will not be easily moved by advertisment and will only buy products that they actually need and are actually beneficial for their lives.