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Is Advertising an Evil or a Blessing?
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Advertising is both a communication process and an industry that is inextricably linked to mass media in America and in some other societies. It is defined in dictionaries as the action that attracts public attention to a product or business, as well as the business of preparing and distributing advertisements. According to the American Marketing Association, advertising is “any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, and services by an identified sponsor”. Advertising has also been called “controlled, identifiable information and persuasion”. Advertising becomes a matter of controversy for several reasons. Its role in society and in the economy has often been debated.
Advertising has a well-established place in American life. The component parts of the advertising industry – ad agencies, media service organizations, media advertising departments – employ nearly 200, and 000 people and generate about $ 100 million in gross revenue annually. Advertising is generally accepted by most Americans who recognize that it funds most of the media they enjoy, provides consumer advice, and promotes economy. It has been said that American society is a commercial culture and advertising is an essential ingredient of that formulation.
While advertising is a historical reality and one that provides ‘fuel” for most commercial media in the United States, there are those who would prefer a communication system without advertising. Questions are frequently raised about whether advertising unnecessarily stimulates needs and wants of people, whether it encourages class-consciousness, materialism, and other values that are not universally applauded. Such discussion is related to advertising’s impact and influence in society, assessed by historians, philosophers, social scientists, and media researches. The social criticism of advertising often centers on whether advertising is truthful. While few critics today advocate the abolition of advertising, there is an active movement to control this form of controlled communication, presumably to serve the public interest. Special attention has been given to the impact of advertising on children, the portrayal of women and minorities in advertising, and other topics that have generated controversy.
Preparing the Text
A. Studying the language
1. Translate the following words and learn their pronunciation:
Advertising, inextricably, advertisement, identify, controversy, revenue, annually, consumer, ingredient, commercial, frequently, unnecessarily, consciousness, materialism, universally, applaud, assess, historian, philosopher, truthful, presumably, portrayal, minority, generate, persuasion.
2. Give Russian equivalents for the following words and phrases:
To be inextricably linked to mass media, to attract public attention to smth, to distribute advertisements, nonpersonal persuasion and promotion of ideas, an identified sponsor, identifiable information, a matter of controversy, in gross revenue, to provide consumer advice, an essential ingredient, to stimulate wants and needs of people, to encourage class-consciousness, to serve the public interests, to advocate the abolition of advertising, the impact of advertising, to generate controversy.
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3. Match the meaning and the word:
| sell | - to publicly inform people about a product or a service in order to persuade to buy it or use it; |
| plug/give smth a plug | - to make sure that a product or service is sold in the most effective way, for example by deciding how much it should cost, how it should be advertised, and where it should be sold; |
| advertise | - to make sure that people know about a new product film, book etc., for example by arranging special events, by offering it at a reduced price, or by talking about it on television; |
| push | - an informal word meaning to try to make people think that smth is much better than it really is, by repeated advertising it, saying it is the best one of its kind, etc; |
| promote | - informal words meaning to try to make people interested in a book you have written, a film you are appearing in etc., for example by mentioning it on a TV or radio conversation when you are supposed to be talking about smth else; |
| market | - to advertise smth and persuade people that it is a very good product, so that they want to buy it. Sell smth to smb; |
| hype up | - an informal word meaning to advertise a new product very heavily, with a lot of advertisements. |
4. Read and translate the following sentences paying special attention to the words in bold type. Develop situations based on your own experience using the given sentences.
1). The company are pushing their new products.
2). He used the sales conference to push his latest ideas.
3). All the posters advertising cigarettes must carry a government health warning.
4). This company pays a famous singer to advertise their product.
5). We are a small business so we can only afford to advertise in the local press.
6). Barbara Streisand is doing a series of TV interviews to promote her latest film.
7). In order to market a product well you need to be aware of public demand.
8). To promote their new brand of shampoo they are selling it at half price for a month.
9). Like most Hollywood movies it was so hyped up that when I saw it I felt rather disappointed.
10). The only reason she agreed to be interviewed on the radio was to plug her new record.
11). Revlon is already pushing its new range of beauty creams.
12). The author used the opportunity of appearing on TV to give his latest book a plug.
13). In Japan we use a Japanese company to market our shoes.
14). You must have those computer games – they have been heavily advertised on TV and in all Sunday papers.
B. Studying the text
Answer the following questions about the text:
1). Why do you think advertising is both a communication process and an industry?
2). How is advertising linked to mass media in America and in some other countries?
3). How does advertising attract public attention to a product or business?
4). Do you agree that advertising is inextricably linked to politics?
5). Are political images also linked to advertising?
6). Do you agree that politicians and advertisers and other advocates of themselves or other causes can project their images into our very homes via TV and influence our opinions?
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7). What kind of people are easily influenced by advertising?
8). Why do you think advertising has a well-established place in American life?
9). Why is advertising generally accepted by most Americans?
10). Is advertising as popular in Russia as in the USA?
11). Do you think that Russia has also become a commercial culture and accepts advertising as well as America does?
12). Would you prefer a communication system without advertising? Why?
13). What values are usually promoted by adverting?
14). Do you agree that advertising unnecessarily stimulates needs and wants of people? Why?
C. Points for comments and discussion
Comment on the following statement:
Some people say that advertising is an evil and a negative social force. However many experts consider advertising a blessing for modern society.
What can you say for and against advertising?
Use the following plan:
1. Introduction (state the problem).
2. Arguments “for”.
3. Arguments “against”.
4. Conclusion.
Write 200-250 words.
The following phrases will help you.
Начало новой мысли:
to begin with – для начала;
then - затем;
first of all – прежде всего;
at first - вначале;
secondly – во-вторых;
thirdly – в-третьих.
Переход к другому предмету и добавление аргументов:
besides – кроме того;
in addition to – далее, в добавлении к;
moreover – более того;
more than that – более того;
similarly - подобно.
Завершение изложения мысли:
in brief / in short – короче говоря;
on the whole – в общем;
therefore - следовательно;
consequently – как результат;
to sum up - суммируя;
finally / in conclusion – наконец, в заключение.
Пояснение ранее сказанного, перефразировка:
namely – а именно;
that is to say – то есть;
as a matter of fact – в сущности, собственно говоря;
for instance / for example - например;
in other words – другими словами.
Выражение противоположной мысли:
but - но;
otherwise – иным образом, в противном случае;
although / though - хотя;
on the contrary - наоборот;
however - однако.
Text 12
Read the following opinions of American professors on advertising, translate them into Russian in writing and give your arguments for and against advertising in English (see also Text 5);
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