Artificial demand constitutes demand for something that, in the absence of exposure to the vehicle of creating demand, would not exist. It has controversial applications in microeconomics (pump and dump strategy) and advertising. Synonyms for "artificial demand" include "fake demand" and "false need".
A demand is usually seen as artificial when it increases consumer utility very inefficiently; for example, a physician proscribing unnecessary surgeries would be creating artificial demand.[1] Government spending with the primary purpose of providing jobs (rather than deliverying any other end product) has been labelled "artificial demand".[2]
Vehicles of creating artificial demand can include mass media advertising, which can create demand for goods, services, political policies or platforms, and other entities.
Another example of artificial demand can be seen in penny stock spam. After purchasing a large number of shares of an extremely low-value stock, the spammer attempts to create artificial demand by implementing a spam-based guerilla marketing strategy.