What do you thnk about advertising

1 Warming up

·         What kind of commercials do you like best?

·         Do you find it easy to remember commercials?

·         Do you prefer commercials with or without music, children or/and animals?

·         Is there any commercial you dislike? Have you bought what they advertise? Why you dislike them?

2 Give your opinion and fill in the table

Is advertising a good or a bad thing? Discuss  your ideas and add your own arguments to the ones listed below.

Advertising is a bad thing	Advertising is a good thing
·         Spoils TV programs: interrupts the things we really want to see	·         Pays for TV programs

3 Discuss the following statements and take notes of your conclusions.

a. We frequently buy things that we don’t need, just because we saw them advertised on TV.

b. If a product is advertised on TV, this means it must be good.

c. Television would be worse without advertisements.

d. Advertising is an essential feature of a free and democratic society.

4 Watch these advertisements and take notes.

PRODUCT	EFFECTIVE	I’D BUY IT

4 Answer the question

·         Did you enjoy them?

·         How effective was each one?

·         What kind of people would buy these products?

·         Do you think the kind of language used has an influence on the target audience?

·         Does it provide the audience with useful information about the product?

·         Would you buy the product which was advertised? Why (not)?

5 Read the texts find out the main idea and the tips to write

  Advertising is a marketing method used to attract a buyer's attention. Advertising is an important and simple procedure for companies to make themselves known. Ads can be found in newspapers, magazines, billboards, buses, the internet, radio, flyers, newsletters, and posters.
             The two most successful paths of advertisement are television and magazines. This is mainly because most of the population prefers to pay attention to those types of technological communication.
             Television adverts are usually made successful with a comedic twist, celebrity appearances, or straight to the point. They are always made successful with it.
              The companies have chosen a slogan for that character. For example, the Halifax advert has Howard, a now-former worker for Halifax, singing famous, well-known songs with lyrics altered to suit rates and loan APR's. Churchhill Car Insurance has a Pug 'back-window' nodding to questions asked referring to Car Insurance FAQs and is famous for saying "No... No, no, no, no, no!" Finally, HSA, a real rabbit who is always hiding, telling people, "Hey, just say!" Adverts are made appealing by the use of color, sound, and action. People like to see how much they will do and how far they will advertise and popularize their product. There is a wide range of adverts that the companies have used this method. (e.g., BT Broadband – a vast array of special effects).
             Television adverts become more expensive but much more successful due to a much wider audience. Television is also much easier to access than magazines because, depending on what magazine you buy, companies can't advertise in every magazine. It strongly depends on the genre of the magazine.
             Magazine advertising is made successful by color, size, and wording. They are made appealing also by photography (Altering the photo pasting their product into the photograph).
             Only certain people buy magazines. Therefore the audience is restricted.

 We live in a fast paced society that is ruled by mass media. Everyday we are bombarded by images of perfect bodies, beautiful hair, flawless skin, and ageless faces that flash at us like a slide show. These ideas and images are imbedded in our minds throughout our lives. Advertisements select audiences openly and subliminally, and target them with their product. They allude to the fact that in order to be like the people in this advertisement you must use their product.
             This is not a new approach, nor is it unique to this generation, but never before has it been as widely used as it is today. There is an old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" and what better way to tell someone about a product than with all one thousand words fitting on one page or a couple minute commercial.
             Take for example an ad for Virginia Slims cigarettes found in practically any magazine. This ad is claiming, in more ways than one, that Virginia Slims is the upscale smoke and is "appropriately for women". There are numerous subliminal associations contingent to this statement as well. One being that the people depicted in these advertisements are all extremely good looking and well dressed. Hinting to the fact that people who smoke these cigarettes are of a high class. Secondly, one other thing I noticed is that men are rarely shown in the Virginia Slims advertisements mainly because their presence hinders the "free sprit of the woman". When men are shown, they are found in the background behind the woman who is holding the Virginia Slims cigarette. Third, and perhaps most important is the brief text in the advertisement which reads "You've come along way baby" or "It's a woman thing".
             This is an attempt to let the reader know that this is not your ordinary cigarette by implying that these cigarettes appeal to the finest walk of life.

6 Write your own essay