Dan Ariely reserves praise for buying dumb products, even in a future where celebrities might shill for bottled air:
Consider for a moment a world without marketing hype. One in which there’s nothing you really desire beyond what you need to live. … The line is narrow, indeed, between being motivated to work and mortgaging the future (both your own and society’s) to get stuff like bottled air. Still, as we continue to redefine capitalism, let’s not discount the role of aspiration and the desire for incremental luxuries–things we want but don’t necessarily need. They can fuel productivity and thus have a valuable function in our economy.
The Dish 