Laura Bolin Carrol writes that “understanding rhetorical messages is essential to help us to become informed consumers, but it also helps evaluate the ethics of messages, how they affect us personally, and how they affect society. These are essential reasons for citizens to be able to analyze and dissect persuasive messages that come their way as being consumers in a culture of consumerism. Having products and services thrown at our face daily, we must be able to make informed decisions when it comes to purchasing products or believing various statements. This includes being able to understand the purpose of the messages we receive and how they are tailored in a way to sway us and appeal to us. This is not to say that we shouldn’t be moved or persuaded of anything, I believe Carrol would contend that we ought to comprehend the implications of the persuasion on individual and societal levels. Without being informed consumers, we are just an automatic, passive part of the industrial process which consists of producing goods, selling goods, and buying goods. By being more educated we give ourselves the power and autonomy to decide what opinions we form, what products we buy, and what services we accept.