advertising

I agree.

Advertising has absolutely nothing to do with the actual quality of a product.

EOE speaks true

"Quality" is a value judgment.

Advertising affects one's perception (judgment) of a product.

Therefore, advertising affects the quality of the product.

I agree with DrewDad.

Bud Light is the number one best selling bear in the US right now. This fact doesn't have anything to do with its taste, or the care with which it is manufactured.

Quality is what the TV tells you it is.

That would be it's perceived quality, not its actual quality; different factors.

And yes, I see how practically - to the consumer - these end up working as the same thing

And how do you measure "actual" quality?

I suppose that'd likely depend on 1) What we're talking about -and- 2) What measures - for this item or service - are or should be applied towards determining it's quality. As I suggested, it would be very difficult to get away from individual perceptions; but even while they're linked, they're not synonymous.

Even so, I'm not sure how solicitations to sell something (Read: advertising) is the same as the actual or perceived goodness, functionality or reliability (read: Quality) of a commodity.

The advertisement is not the same as "the goodness" of a commodity, but it affects the consumer's perception of "the goodness" of a commodity.

I don't think there can be a truly objective measure of "the goodness" of a commodity. At some point, a somewhat arbitrary decision has to be made about how to weight the measures of reliability (mean time between failure), feature set, price point, appearance, etc.

Yes, completely.

Side Note: I can't stand advertising, personally. So many wail and bray at the "government" or the communists, the illegal aliens or the <other party>; to me, all pale in comparison to the level of disdain I personally feel at constantly being assaulted by advertising. I understand its role in the market and can also respect the good it does for the jobs it provides, nonetheless... I fear that at this level of completely saturation in society (US), its actually changing the way we look at the world, ourselves and having a detrimental effect on the expectations we have, etc.