# Professor Adam Alter explains how advertisers use scarcity and exclusivity to market their products

1 Faculty News October 10, 2019 ![](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/con_041821.jpg?itok=N3bHLRNd)>

Excerpt from [CNET](https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-marketers-use-social-media-fomo-to-sell-you-things-and-how-you-can-keep-your-money/) -- "'Instagram is a FOMO engine. It shows you that other people are leading incredible lives and doing incredible things that you aren't doing,' [Adam Alter](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/adam-alter), associate professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, said in an email.

[Read More](https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-marketers-use-social-media-fomo-to-sell-you-things-and-how-you-can-keep-your-money/)