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The persuasive purpose of advertising and its dangers with regards to consumer credit
Consumers decisions respond to stimuli. These can be conditioned by a variety of tools and, pursuant to them, alter tastes and preferences. The poor attention of consumer law on this subject, usually focused on the standards of clarity and truthfulness of advertising, neglect that consumers may be persuaded to make sub-optimal decisions. In the context of consumer credits, this can be proved observing the emphasis given by the law to the transmission of certain informational content in advertising (v.gr., the financial cost of the operation), but that, absent of a regulation that considers the problems derived from the individuals’ bounded rationality, the protective tool seems insufficient. The tendency to highlight the positive elements of consumption, displacing those that involve some degree of sacrifice, stimulate people to seek the financing for unnecessary consumption or in conditions that might be harmful, leading -in the most extreme situations- to over-indebtedness.