There was a commercial on tv about a year or so ago that featured a rather average-looking woman sitting on a park bench enjoying a sandwich on her lunch break. A vacuous model type sits down next to her and looks at her as she eats and truly enjoys her sandwich. After a few moments the model looks at the “plain Jane” and declares “I hate you.”
Hateful action is the only physical evidence of envy, which cannot otherwise be proven. All people publicly accused of the shameful emotion of envy will deny it because they can.
The goal of advertising is to make us unhappy with what we have. Advertisers have to walk a fine line though, because envy seeks to destroy, not compete. Advertisers need us to go out and buy a new car, not torch the neighbor's Hummer. I wonder if the eternal popularity of socialism/communism in a capitalist economy is driven in part from poor advertising.