Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, grade: 1,1, , language: English, abstract: (How) Does advertising influence customer values? Can advertisers shape their audience's cultural values in their interest? Or do advertisements simply appeal to values pre-existing in a society? These questions are nowadays more relevant than ever before especially regarding the U.S. culture and advertising industry, which are serving as the objects of study. In the course of developing an answer, secondary research is conducted in the form of analysis and interpretation of literature, journal articles, reports and studies. In the course of developing an answer, secondary research will be conducted in the form of analysis and interpretation of literature, journal articles, reports and studies. The paper is set up as follows: Chapter 2 will precisely define and discuss the terms employed, and provide an in-depth look at U.S. values and their history. Chapter 3 will elaborate the mechanisms by which advertising influences vari-ous constructs on behalf of its audience, complemented with two studies related to the topic. Chapter 4 will conclude by bringing together the values treated in chapter 2 and the effects of advertising dis-cussed in chapter 3.