German advertising used to mirror the popular view of German culture. Germans see themselves as the people who give the world immaculate machine parts. The machine parts have high quality and do not need to be publicized. At the most, a German customer needs information about the machine parts. German advertisements are therefore strictly informative, nothing more or less. German customers traditionally appreciate rational and factual advertisements, which above all inform. Advertisements are not supposed to be works of art with a creative value apart from that of the mere data provided. Many advertisements are starkly austere. Germans expect products to speak for themselves. Advertisements that seek to seduce rather than convince are regarded as superficial and lacking in substance. Times are purported to be changing and advertisements are now informing in a creative manner.