Ostentation-Value and Demand

Insofar as there is gratification from the response to a display of the use of an object, the object can be said to have Ostentation-Value, e. g. diamonds, anything to the use of which Veblen's 'Conspicuous Consumption' applies, etc.  Now, such Ostentation is deliberate, so among the admirers of the display is the displayer themselves.  Thus, a factor in Ostentation-Value is a self-image that is approved in some respect.  But that approval can be enjoyed virtually as well as actually, i. e. in private as well as in public, e. g. in front of a mirror, or even in one's imagination.  In other words, merely fantasizing about wearing diamonds can incorporate Ostentation-Value.  Accordingly, one of the goals of some advertising is to cultivate the Ostentation-Value of a product, i. e. to portray the use of it as approved behavior in some respect.  In other words, one of the aims of such advertising is that Demand be influenced by Ostentation-Value.  An obvious example of that influence is buying a house simply because doing so realizes the 'American Dream', while a more subtle example is buying a bottled beer for home use after viewing an ad for the drinking of it in a bar.  The apparent advertising anomaly in the latter case--the ad would seem to be for a bar--is explained by its appeal to the Ostentation-Value of merely purchasing the beer, i. e. scene in the bar signifies that drinking the product even alone at home is socially approved behavior.