This chapter investigates the close ties between capitalism, practices of consumption and the power of advertising, drawing on arguments from Karl Marx, Raymond Williams, Thorstein Veblen and Herbert Marcuse. For Marx, the Frankfurt School and related scholars, the practices of ‘conspicuous consumption’ denote social status and the general false consciousness of ‘commodity fetishism’. Here, consumption has been caught up in debates about identity: to what extent can consumption be considered as a genuine or legitimate expression of self or even evidence of subcultural resistance to dominant societal norms and values? These accounts, in turn, are weighed against arguments regarding the extent to which our consumption practices are shaped, co-opted and determined by the semiotics of advertising. The chapter considers this power of advertising in relation to a variety of contexts, including television, film, popular music and social media. The chapter concludes with an examination of various techniques and strategies used to critique advertising and consumer culture, including the practice of culture jamming.