It's kind of like commercials about beef

But see, even there you've got vegetarians and mad cow scaremongers and earth first resource allocation types shouting you down, so the comeback at least makes some kind of sense.

Who's waging a campaign against cotton?

I don't think they're geared toward people making buying decisions at clothing companies. I live near Detroit, and on some radio stations here we actually do get commercials aimed at other corporations; mostly, aimed at people in auto companies who decide what suppliers to use. They tend to be very straightforward and to the point, none of the touchy-feely crap you see in the cotton commercials. They're some of the only commercials left that try to appeal to intellect instead of emotion. You don't make a case to your boss for switching suppliers based on the feeling a commercial gave you, you do it based on hard evidence.

No, I think commercials like the cotton commercials and milk commercials are supposed to create more awareness for the industry as a whole, and prompt people to buy "real" cotton or "real" milk instead of the alternatives. I think it's a dubious concept, but it's done often so it must work.

How about the ads from the Plastics Council? As if we had a choice in the matter - advertising plastic is like advertising air.

They're building brand name recognition. Why?

Well, in this case, it may help them sell BASF stock.

It's social engineering. They're trying to adjust people's attitudes about cotton, or beef, or plastic, or whatever. There could be any number of reasons. Maybe the industy as a whole is in a slump. Maybe they've gotten some bad press lately and are countering it.

Let me introduce you to my friend, Mr. Mute Q. Button.

What does the Q stand for?

[ MOM is in the kitchen, stirring a pot, whose contents can't be seen. Beside the pot is a can, whose label is facing away from the camera. SUZIE, about twelve or thirteen, enters. ]
SUZIE: Mooooooom! I feel strange.
MOM [ Looking concerned ] : What's wrong, dear?
SUZIE: I have an emptiness, right here. [ SUZIE points to her stomach. ]
MOM [ Realizing! ] : Why, dear, that's because you need...
MOM [ turns the can to reveal its label, which reads ]: FOOD.

ANNOUNCER [ off-camera ]: When you get that hungry, gnawing feeling in your stomach, there's nothing like FOOD to take care of you. FOOD satisfies your cravings like nothing else. You can't buy it by that name, but you'll know... FOOD hits the spot.

SUZIE [ Bright and cheerful ] : Thanks, Mom, for the FOOD!

I heartily recommend FOOD! I won't eat anything else.

...

As for those weird ads, I can't help thinking they're for some purpose other than making ordinary citizens want to buy stuff, like some of the suggestions above. Or maybe it's a ploy, so if they get discovered doing something bad, the news media won't report on it because they don't want to alienate their big sources of ad revenue.

Or something like that.

Actually, the whole point of the BASF commercials is that you CAN buy them. As in, shares of the company stock.