Here's an entertaining speech by Rory Sutherland, vice chairman of Ogilvy Group U.K., from the TED Global 2009 conference, held in Oxford, England, at the end of the July. Sutherland makes the argument that advertising's power to alter people's perceptions can be harnessed for good rather than evil—that it could help preserve the world's limited material resources by emphasizing the perceived value of things over the "real" value. He says: "If you want to live in a world in the future with fewer material goods, you basically have two choices: You can either live in a world which is poorer, which people in general don't like, or you can live in a world where intangible value constitutes a greater part of overall value." Of course, people are shooting his argument to Swiss cheese in the comment string at the TED Web site. Via The Perlorian Brothers.

—Posted by Tim Nudd