Children model after their parents. Employees model after their bosses. Hero worship and hero emulation are common human experiences. We all imitate people we admire. We are all copycats, though most of us are not aware of just how much.
Advertising can create personalities and images that trigger the modeling instinct.
Advertising can communicate new information. Man is a semi-rational creature who will, in weaker moments, respond to facts and reason and modify his behavior accordingly. Advertising can suggest, and man is a suggestible creature. That many people can be hypnotized indicates how susceptible homo-sapiens are to suggestion. Responsiveness to suggestion is a subtle process and one peripherally related to the modeling impulse.