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A) Advertising Is a Positive Social Force
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There is no realistic justification for the restriction of advertising: it is a form of protected speech and is crucial to the financial survival of media industries. While some advertising is generally reprehensible, the vast majority is not, and there is virtually no advertising that promotes causes or values which truly do damage to American society. Instead, by providing consumer information to the public, advertising plays a positive social role. The public knows that advertisements are advocating specific views and accepts them with skepticism. Advertising also is a positive force for economic stimulation. Targeted advertising is valuable to increase the diversity and range of media organizations like specialized magazines in the marketplace. Political advertising, even when misleading, reflects the nature of the candidates and rarely goes unchallenged by the opposition or a critical news media.
B) Advertising Is a Negative Social Force
Advertising clutters our media, overpowers serious news and discussion, encourages unnecessary buying, worsens class envy, and leads to wasteful consumption. Advertisements may largely finance American media, but that would be the only way it could be called a “positive force”. Advertising exaggerates, misleads, appeals to sex and frivolity, gives irrational testimonials, creates exorbitant expectations, and generally promotes a materialistic society. At best, advertising in America is a necessary evil. It could hardly be called a positive social force.
c)
Advertising - a positive social force? I think not. Advertising causes people to buy what they don’t need, causes people to discard perfectly good merchandise, causes poor people to want things they can’t afford, causes the spread of vulgar culture, and creates exorbitant and unfillable expectations, thus promoting a “materialistic” society.
From “Media Debates”
Preparing the Text
A. Points for comments and discussion
Write a two page essay on the social role of advertising, making use of the previous texts and the vocabulary you have learnt.
Text 13
Nine Differences between Advertising and Public Relations
If you’re searching for a career or trying to promote your company, you may have questions about advertising vs. public relations. These two industries are very different even though they’re commonly confused as being one and the same. The following nine properties just scratch the surface of the many differences between advertising and public relations.
Paid Space or Free Coverage
| Advertising (AD):The company pays for ad space. You know exactly when that ad will air or be published. | Public Relations (PR): Your job is to get free publicity for the company. From news conferences to press releases, you’re focused on getting free media exposure for the company and its products/ services. |
Creative Control vs. Control
| AD: Since you’re paying for the space, you have creative control on what goes into that ad. | PR: You have no control over how the media presents your information, if they decide to use your info at all. They’re not obligated to cover your event or to publish your press release just because you sent something to them. |
Shelf Life
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| AD: Since you pay for the space, you can run your ads over and over for as long as your budget allows. An ad generally has a longer shelf life than a press release. | PR: You only submit a press release about a new product once. You only submit a press release about a news conference once. The PR exposure you receive is only circulated once. An editor won’t publish your same press release three of four times in their magazine. |
Wise Consumers
| AD: Consumers know when they are reading an advertisement they are trying to be sold a product or service. “The consumer understands that we have paid to present our selling message to him or her, and unfortunately, the consumer often views our selling message very guardedly”, Paul Flowers said. – “After all, they know we are trying to sell them”. | PR: When someone reads a third-party article written about your product or views coverage of your event on TV, they’re seeing something you didn’t pay for with ad dollars and view it differently than they do paid advertising. “Where we can generate some sort of third-party “endorsement” by independent media sources, we can create great credibility for our clients’ products or services”, Flowers said. |
Creativity or a Nose for News
| AD: In advertising you get to exercise your creativity in creating new ad campaigns and materials. | PR: In public relations you have to have a nose for news and be able to generate buzz through that news. You exercise your creativity, to an extent, in the way you search for new news to release to the media. |
Target Audience or Hooked Editor
| AD: You’re looking for your target audience and advertising accordingly. You wouldn’t advertise a women’s TV network in a male oriented magazine. | PR: You must have an angle and hook editors to get them to use info for an article, to run a press release or to cover your event. |
Limited or Unlimited Contact
| AD: Some industry pros have contact with the clients. Others like copywriters or graphic designers in the agency may not meet with the clients at all. | PR: In public relations you are very visible to the media. PR pros aren’t always called on for the good news. If there was an accident in your company, you may have to give a statement or on-camera interview to journalists. You may represent your company as a spokesperson at an event. Or you may work within community relations to show your company is actively involved in good work and is committed to the city and its citizens. |
Special Events
| AD: If your company sponsors an event, you wouldn’t want to take out an ad giving yourself a pat on the back for being such a great company. This is where your PR department steps in. | PR: If you’re sponsoring an event, you can send out a press release and the media might pick it up. They may publish the information or cover the event. |
Writing Style
| AD: Buy this product! Act now! Call today! These are all things you can say in an advertisement. You want to use those buzz words to motivate people to buy your product. | PR: You’re strictly writing in a no-nonsense news format. Any blatant commercial message in your communications is disregarded by the media. |
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From: A. Duncan. Your Guide to Advertising
Preparing the Text
A. Studying the language
1. Find the English equivalents for the following word combinations and phrases and use them in the situations from the text:
их часто путают, принимая одно за другое; следующие девять характеристик лишь поверхностно отражают существующие различия; бесплатная реклама; освещать событие; срок годности (хранения); независимые СМИ; уметь найти новость; от имени клиента; взаимодействовать с медийными рекламными агентами; печатные издания и средства вещания; целевая аудитория; выступить с заявлением или дать телеинтервью в прямом эфире; выступать от имени компании.
2. Explain the meaning of the following word combinations and phrases:
to promote your company; advertising vs. public relations; ad space; you know exactly when that ad will air; free media exposure; you can run your ads over and over; a third-party article; ad dollars; third-party “ endorsement”; we can create great credibility for our clients’ products; to generate buzz; some industry pros; to show your company is committed to the city; to sponsor an event; buzz words; a no-nonsense news format; blatant commercial messages.
B. Points for comments and discussion
Speak about the nine differences between advertising and PR activities described in the text. Do you know of some others you could add to the list?
Text 14
Advertising as a Trade
1. Advertising is the techniques and practices used to bring products, services, opinions, or causes to public notice for the purpose of persuading the public to respond in a certain way toward what is advertised. Most advertising involves promoting goods that are for sale, but similar methods are used to encourage people to drive safely, to support various charities, or to vote for political candidates, among many other examples. In many countries advertising is the most popular source of income for the media (e. g. newspapers, magazines or television stations) through which it is conducted.
2. In the ancient and medieval world such advertising as existed was conducted by word of mouth. The first step towards modern advertising came with the development of printing in the 15th and 16th centuries. In the 17th century weekly newspapers in London began to carry advertisements, and by the 18th century such advertising was flourishing. The great expansion of business in the 19th century was accompanied by the growth of advertising industry; it was that century, primarily in the United States, that saw the establishment of advertising agencies. The first agencies were, in essence, brokers for space in newspapers. But by the early 20th century agencies became involved in producing advertising messages, including copy and artwork, and by the 1920s agencies had come into being that could plan and execute complete advertising campaigns, from initial research to copy preparation to placement in various media.
3. There are eight principal media for advertising. Perhaps the most basic medium is the newspaper, which offers advertisers large circulations, a readership located close to the advertiser’s place of business, and the opportunity to alter their advertisements on a frequent and regular basis. Magazines, the other chief print medium, may be of general interest or they may be aimed at specific audiences (such as people interested in outdoor spots, or computer, or literature) and offer the manufacturers of products of particular interest to such people the chance to make contact with their most likely customers. Many national magazines publish regional editions, permitting a more selective targeting of advertisements.
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4. In Western industrial nations the most pervasive media are television and radio. Although in some countries radio and television are state-run and accept no advertising, in others advertisers are able to buy ”spots” of time, usually a minute or less in duration. Advertising spots are broadcast between or during regular programs, at moments sometimes specified by the advertiser and sometimes left up to the broadcaster. For advertisers the most important facts about a given television or radio program are the size and composition of its audience. The size of the audience determines the amount of money the broadcaster can charge an advertiser, and the composition of the audience determines the advertiser’s choice as to when a certain message directed at a certain segment of the public should be run.
5. The other advertising media include direct mail, which can make a highly detailed and personalized appeal; outdoor billboards and posters; transit advertising, which can use millions of users of mass-transit systems; and miscellaneous media, including dealer display and promotional items such as matchboxes or calendars.
6. For an advertisement to be effective, its production and placement must be based on knowledge of public and a skilled use of the media. Advertising agencies serve to orchestrate complex campaigns whose strategies of media use are based on research into consumer behaviour and demographic analysis of the market area. A strategy must combine creativity in the production of the advertising messages with canny scheduling and placement, so that the messages are seen by, and will have an effect on, the people the advertiser most wants to address. Given a fixed budget, advertisers face a basic choice: they can have their message seen or heard by many people fewer times, or by fewer people many times. This and other strategic decisions are made in light of tests of the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
7. There is no dispute over the power of advertising to inform consumers of what products are available. In a free-market economy advertising is essential to a company’s survival, for unless consumers know about a company’s product, they are unlikely to buy it. In criticism of advertising it has been argued that the consumer must pay for the cost of advertising in the form of higher prices for goods; against this point it is argued that advertising enables goods to be mass marketed, thereby bringing prices down. It has been argued that the cost of major advertising campaigns is such that few firms can afford them, thus helping these firms to dominate the market; on the other hand whereas smaller firms may not be able to compete with larger ones at a national level, at the local level advertising enables them to hold their own.
8. Finally, it has been argued that advertisers exercise an undue influence over the regular contents of the media they employ – the editorial stance of a newspaper or the subject of a television show. In response it has been pointed out that such influence is counteracted, at least in the case of financially strong media firms, by the advertiser’s reliance on the media to convey his messages; any compromise of the integrity of a media firm might result in a smaller audience for his advertising.
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From: Encyclopedia Britannica
Preparing the Text
A. Studying the language
1. Find the English equivalents for the following word combinations and phrases and use them in the situations from the text:
привлечь общественное внимание к; отреагировать определённым образом на; поддерживать благотворительные акции; в Средневековье; устная молва; публиковать рекламные объявления; полностью провести рекламную кампанию; размещение в СМИ; на постоянной основе; направленный на определённую аудиторию; ставить на усмотрение теле- или радиовещательных кампаний; состав аудитории; сумма, взимаемая с рекламодателя; выпустить сообщение в эфир; рекламные щиты и плакаты; они стоят перед главным выбором; в рыночной экономике; главное условие для выживания; высказывалось мнение, что; конкурировать с; в масштабе всей страны.
2. Explain the meaning of the following word combinations and phrases:
promoting goods; advertising was flourishing; that century saw the establishment of advertising agencies; the advertising message; chief print medium; a more selective targeting of advertisements; the most pervasive media; advertising spots; direct mail; personalized appeal; transit advertising; promotional items; to orchestrate complex campaigns; demographic analysis; canny scheduling; to be mass marketed; to dominate the market; to exercise an undue influence over; the editorial stance of a newspaper; the integrity of a media firm.
3. Use the word combinations you practiced in tasks 1 and 2 in situations of your own. Write at least 10 situations describing advertising in Russia.
B. Studying the text
1. Prepare to discuss the text in class. When answering the questions, refrain from consulting the text.
1). What is the most general definition of advertising given in the text?
2). In what other fields besides commerce is advertising used?
3). What facts from the history of advertising have you learned from the text?
4). What changes did the work of advertising agencies undergo with time?
5). What are the principal media for advertising? Which of them do you find the most efficient?
6). The text doesn’t mention one of the most recent media for advertising. What is it?
7). What are the most pervasive media for advertising?
8). What role do advertisers and broadcasters play in placing “advertising spots”? What are they guided by?
9). What other advertising techniques are mentioned in the text? Are any of them used in this country?
10). What is an effective advertisement based on?
11). How are most successful advertising campaigns orchestrated?
12). What kind of strategic decisions are to be made to ensure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns?
13). What pro and contra arguments have been used in disputes about advertising?
14). How can undue influence of advertisers over the regular contents of the media be counteracted?
2. Prepare a summary of the text.
C. Points for comments and discussion
1. Find some additional information about the history of advertising. Speak about it in detail.
2. Why have you chosen advertising as you future speciality?
3. Make a plan and be ready to speak on the topic “Advertising is my future speciality.” Use the previous texts and the vocabulary you have learnt.
Text 15
Careers in Advertising
Careers in advertising may involve working for advertisers, media, advertising agencies, or suppliers and special services. In the opinion of an American specialist, at most, only 35 colleges and universities in the USA have effective programs of advertising education. Fewer than ten offer any truly significant amount of graduate work in advertising. However advertising draws people from a variety of educational backgrounds.
Advertisers. Most companies that advertise extensively have advertising managers, or brand managers. Because these people help to coordinate the company’s advertising program with its sales program and with the company’s advertising agency, they must have aptitudes for both advertising and management.
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Media. All media use salesmen to sell advertising space or broadcasting time. Media salesman must be knowledgeable about business and skilled in salesmanship.
I have never worked in the media department of an agency, but observation of those who have been successful in this field leads me to think that they need an analytical mind, the ability to communicate numerical data in non-numerical formats, stability under pressure and a taste for negotiations with the owners of the media.
Advertising agencies. A variety of specialists is required in an advertising agency because it develops advertising programs, prepares advertisements, and places them in media. Those interested in advertising research and fact gathering should know both statistics and consumer psychology. Competence in media planning and evaluation is essential for a career in media. The media buyer must identify and determine the most effective media in which to expose the advertising messages, and purchase space or time in these media.
Copywriting requires creative skills and ability to visualize ideas. The copywriter is a developer of advertising ideas and messages.
Layout, typography and visualization are essential for those in art, both for print advertising and for television commercials. Print-production specialists must know printing, photoengraving and typography.
Experience in “show business”, dramatics, photography, music, playwriting and allied fields are excellent backgrounds for the television producer.
Besides, every agency needs the account executive to be a mediator between an advertiser and an agency who should have accountant background and managerial skills.
Special services such as marketing research organizations, television and radio producers, film producers, art studios, photographers, producers of display materials, typographers, photoengravers and product and package designers support advertising.
Chief Executive Officer. The most difficult job in an agency is Chief Executive Officer. He (or she) must be a good leader of frightened people. He must have financial acumen, administrative skill, thrust, and the courage to fire non-performers. He must be a good salesman because he is responsible for bringing in new clients. He must be resilient in adversity. Above all, he must have the physical stamina to work 12 hours a day, dine out several times a week, and spend half his time in airplanes.
A recent study reveals that the death rate from stress-related causes is 14 per cent higher among senior advertising executives than their counterparts in other white-collar occupations.
Creative Director. As a Creative Director myself, I dare to list the attributes needed for this back-breaking job. You must be:
1. A good psychologist.
2. Willing and able to set high standards.
3. An efficient administrator.
4. Capable of strategic thinking – “positioning” and all that.
5. Research-minded.
6. Equally good at television and print.
7. Equally good at package goods and other kinds of accounts.
8. Well versed in graphics and typography.
9. A hard worker – and fast.
10. Slow to quarrel.
11. Prepared to share credit for good work, and accept blame for bad work.
Notice that I put “good psychologist” at the top of the list.
Albert Lasker, who made the largest fortune in the history of the advertising business, once told a group of copywriters, “You think managing copywriters is a snap[6]? You have taken some hairs out of me. I had a breakdown that kept me five and one-half months. I couldn’t talk for five minutes without starting to weep.
Job prospects. More than 0.1 % of the U. S. population work in advertising, but their number is expected to grow rapidly. Opportunity for rapid advancement is generally greater in advertising than in most other industries. How rapidly a person moves up in responsibilities and pay is based largely on his own efforts, more than on age or length of employment. For women, opportunities in advertising – at least in advertising agencies and in relating – tend to be greater than in most other business enterprises.
In general the rate of pay is comparable to that of business executives and professional men, such as physicians and lawyers in the same community.
From “Ogilvy on Advertising”
Preparing the Text
A. Studying the language
1. Give the Russian equivalents for the following words and word combinations:
an advertiser, a supplier, advertising education, significant amount of graduate work in advertising, a variety of educational backgrounds, to advertise extensively, advertising managers, brand managers, to coordinate the company’s advertising program with its sales program, to have aptitudes for both advertising and management, to sell advertising space or broadcasting time, media salesman, to be knowledgeable about business, to be skilled in salesmanship, to develop advertising programs, to prepare advertisements, to place advertisements in media, to be interested in advertising research and fact gathering, consumer psychology, competence in media planning and evaluation, a media buyer, to identify and determine the most effective media, to expose advertising messages, to purchase space or time in the media, copywriting, a copywriter, creative writing skills, ability to visualize ideas, to develop advertising ideas and messages, layout, typography, visualization, print advertising, television commercials, print-production specialists, photoengraving, an accountant executive, to be a mediator between an advertiser and an agency, to have accountant background and managerial skills, marketing research, television and radio producers, film producers, producers of display materials, product and package designers, to be successful in the field, analytical mind, ability to communicate numerical date in non-numerical formats, stability under pressure, a taste for negotiation, Chief Executive Officer, to be a good leader, to have financial acumen, administrative skill, thrust, the courage to fire non-performers, to be a good salesman, to be responsible for bringing up new clients,, to be resilient in adversity, to have the physical stamina to work 12 hours a day, senior advertising executives, counterparts, white-collar occupations, Creative Director, to set high standards, a backbreaking job, to be capable of strategic thinking, to be research-minded, to be good at, to share credit for good work, to accept blame for bad work, to move up in responsibilities and pay, opportunities for rapid advancement, length of employment, business enterprises, the rate of pay, business executives.
B. Points for comments and discussion
1. Make a list of the jobs in the field of advertising. What do all these people do? What personal qualities and qualification should they possess?
2. Prepare a talk about different jobs in advertising. What job appeals to you? Why?
Text 16
Switzerland is the fourteenth largest advertising market in Europe. It is a small country (population 6.9 million) with a reputation for a stable currency and a solid banking system expected to run as surely and predictably as a Swiss watch.
This is the story of Hans Rudolf Jost, owner and managing director of the Quadry Agency for Communication, Zurich, who proved Switzerland could break out of a pattern[7] and think big[8].
In1991-92 the Swiss economy began to feel the effects of the European recession. Export markets for its chorological products[9], pharmaceuticals and precision machinery were down. The recession reduced tourism, a major source of business for Switzerland. By the fall of 1992 Jost began to sense the agency and its clients were dispirited, even discouraged. The agency needed something to get exited about, to generate vitality for itself. But, thought Jost, the best way to get the agency staff more upbeat[10] was to find ways to get clients excited and optimistic. How could the agency do that if the whole continental economy was in the doldrums[11]? Perhaps the problem was attitude. The attitude of people in Switzerland affected the attitude of client management, which in tern affected the agency.
So searching for the heart of the problem, Jost tried to think what would get Switzerland revitalized in outlook and spirit. No small task. But worth the attempt.
Jost initiated the Vitalizer Project. The small 17-person agency began a process that got the attention of the top levels of business and government. The centerpiece was a dinner, to which the agency invited the leaders of business, industry, banking, publishing, the arts and government. More than 350 dignitaries came to hear speeches by leaders of government, business and the arts and to share ideas.
Making vitality the keynote of one evening was still not the whole idea. Vitality became the mission of the agency. To clients, The Quadry Agency promised to bring vitality not just to ideas or ads or even campaigns. Each member of the agency was asked to write a statement explaining how he or she would bring vitality to the agency. An all-day meeting developed the mission statement and a commitment to vitalizing all relationships.
Jost decided that the Vitalizer Project required philosophical understanding[12], so he carved a month out of his schedule and wrote a book on bringing vitality to business. The book was a minor sensation and the media made the book a feature story upon publication.
The project caused Jost to reorganize the agency, adopt a new logo, move from a traditional Swiss building that had once been a diary to nontraditional new surroundings overlooking Lake Zurich, and to focus the agency and client energies on bringing vitality to every activity. With its outlook and dedication the agency won three of the next four accounts for which it was asked to present. The story proves that good ideas are the heart of the agency business worldwide.
From “International Advertising”
Preparing the Text
A. Studying the text
1. Answer the following questions about the text:
1). What kind of country is Switzerland?
2). What does the author compare Swiss banking system and stable currency with?
3). What was the economic situation in Switzerland like?
4). What export markets was Switzerland famous for?
5). Why do you think Hans Rudolf Jost turned out to be the right person at the time of European recession?
6). What was the major source of business in Switzerland before the recession of 1991 – 92?
7). What was the mood of the agency staff and their clients at the time of recession?
8). What was the best way to get the agency staff more upbeat and to get clients more excited and optimistic?
9). What evidence can you give to illustrate the fact that the whole continental economy was in doldrums?
10). Why do you think the author pays particular attention to the attitude of people?
11). Do you agree that it is impossible to succeed in revitalizing economy if the population is dispirited and discouraged?
12). How did Jost manage to attract the attention of the top levels of business and government?
13). Why do you think the dinner was the centerpiece of the public relation action organized by Jost?
14). What made the dinner effective?
15). Why do you think the idea of vitality became so popular among the staff and the clients?
16). What was the result of all-day meeting?
17). Why did Jost decide to write a book?
18). How did Jost bring vitality to his agency and the staff?
19). What was the three most important measures taken by Jost to change the situation in the agency business?
2. Retell the text:
- on the part of a visitor who is critical of the event;
- on the part of Jost;
- on the part of the member of the staff who whole-heartedly supports Jost’s ideas.
B. Points for comments and discussion
Study the Supplement carefully and write an application letter and a resume (or a curriculum vitae) applying for a job at the Quadry Agency for Communications. The previous text might help you to formulate your official application letter.
Text 17
1. Advertising slogans can range all the way from the [13]trite (“Beer, it’s lovely”) through the vulgar [14]inane (“You’ll look a little lovelier each day with Fabulous Pink Camay”) to the idiotically bizarre (“I dreamed I made sweet music in my Maidenform bra”). For the advertising executive there is only one criterion applied to all of them: Will they induce people to buy more of the article in question, more brand A, more beer, more soap, more brassieres? Any effect that advertising has upon our culture or values or language is that unintended and (from the [15]copywriter’s point of view) strictly irrelevant – but that doesn’t make the influence any less potent or less far-reaching. Indeed if culture is “the whole way of life of the community” there is a case for saying that the cultural [16]kingpin of twentieth-century Britain is the advertising industry. Certainly no one today can escape continual assault by advertisements in one form or another. (Can you remember a day this year when no advertiser’s message reached you – not even a [17]hoarding, a shop-window display, a phrase on a cereal packet?) And in 1964 expenditure on all forms of advertising in the United Kingdom reached a record total of £553 millions – an amount which compares interestingly with a net expenditure of £545 millions in the same year on all primary and secondary schools in England and Wales.
2. The vast sums are spent by business firms in the expectation of specific economic advantages, and the exponents of advertising (usually the employees of advertising agencies) who are assiduous in writing letters to the Press usually base their defense on the claim that a modern industrial economy “cannot exist without advertising”. The economic case for advertising must be explained later. The main concern of this essay is with its unplanned yet pervasive influence upon the quality of your thinking and feeling, and upon the goals towards which we strive both in our individual lives and in the network of social relationships which make our civilization. There are two main questions to be asked here. First, what kinds of emotional appeal do advertisers find it profitable to play upon, and what is the effect on our sensibilities of the copywriter’s persistent [18]harping upon our feelings? Second, in what ways does financial dependence upon advertisements affect the quality, content, and availability of the media (newspapers, magazines, television, and radio programmes) through which advertising is dissented?
3. Before we consider these issues, however, it must be made clear that there is a great deal of advertising which we can safely ignore because it confines itself, unexceptionably, to providing information about goods and services for sale. Broadly speaking, the classified advertisement in small print in a newspaper fall under this heading; as do the majority of advertisements in trade and technical journals which are directed at other manufactures or traders; together with a certain number of the display advertisements for local shop-keepers which appear in local daily or weekly papers. At the opposite pole are almost all television commercials and most of the display advertisements in national daily and Sunday papers and large circulation magazines – a very high proportion, in fact, of all the nation-wide advertising which is addressed to the ordinary purchaser or final consumer. These advertisements contain a minimum of informational content and set out primarily to work upon our feelings and half conscious attitudes by non-rational suggestions. This distinction between “informational advertising” and “advertising by psychological manipulation” is admittedly a rough and ready one, and there are many dubious cases in the borderland between the two. Thus “Asphalting contractor; drives and paths re-surfaced from 10s. square yard; phone – “ falls clearly enough in the one category; while “It’s smart to drink Port” belongs unmistakably to the other. We might find it harder to agree on a classification for the single-line advertisement which appeared in the New Statesman’s Personal Column for many years: “French taught by Parisienne; Results guaranteed.”
From: “Advertising” by Frank Whitehead, in: Denys Thompson (ed.), Discrimination and Popular Culture.
Preparing the Text
A. Studying the language
1. “potent” (1): find a synonym.
2. “assiduous in writing letters” (2): give a paraphrase.
3. What is the Russian equivalent of “display advertisements” in this context (3)?
4. What does the author mean by “non-rational suggestion” (3)?
5. “rough and ready” (3): give a paraphrase.
6. What is a “contractor” (3)?
B. Studying the contents
1. What does the expression “assault by advertisement” suggest (1)?
2. Which kinds of advertisements would you expect to find in the “personal column” (3) of a newspaper?
C. Studying the text: questions and stimuli
1. What is the main criterion for advertising slogans? (the verbal aspect of advertising)
2. What is the influence of advertising on culture? (the cultural aspect of advertising)
3. Compare expenditures on advertising and education. (the financial aspect of advertising)
4. How does industry justify this gigantic expenditure? (the economic aspect of advertising)
5. How is the consumer affected by advertising? (the psychological aspect of advertising)
6. What is the influence of advertising on the media? (the socio-political aspect of advertising)
7. Sum up the definition and the aims of the two different forms of advertising (informational advertising and advertising by psychological manipulation).
D. Points for comments and discussion
1. Comment on expenditures on advertising and education. Suggestion: discuss economic necessity of advertising (competition on national and international scale).
2. Discuss cultural aspect. In what ways is advertising “potent” and “far-reaching”? Suggestion: influence on fashion, eating and drinking habits, leisure-time activities, behaviour, etc.
Text 18
How Marketing Works
1. Planning
That new product you saw in the shop today. Did you realize it was planned, meticulously and deliberately, months, probably years ago? Every single aspect of it. Marketing executives in the manufacturing company are at the center of this planning. They co-ordinate the team of specialists whose judgment will affect the success of the operation: production managers, accountants, statisticians, packaging designers, publicity experts and so on. Backing all this is …
2. Market research
Risk is inevitable in industry. The whole enterprise turns on how well the company is able to gauge what you - the public - are going to want in the future. Big sums of money are to be invested in the product; research is vital to reduce the guess work in this to a minimum. Research executives of many kinds must test the product itself (its taste, price, colour, fitness for purpose – the lot!); they also test the ways in which its advantages can be best communicated to its future uses.
3. Advertising agency creative work
While new products are being developed, the company’s advertising agency is kept closely involved. Once the go ahead has been given, the agency’s team of specialists (copywriters, artists, film producers, media planners, etc.) headed by the account executive, prepares recommendations covering the various parts of the advertising plan. This will be coordinated and submitted to the manufacturer’s marketing manager.
4. Public launch
The research stages have been completed, the advertising produced, the sales promotion schemes arranged; the agency has made its bookings with media executives in newspapers, television and so on. Now, for the first time, it reaches you – through advertising. The initial “idea” has been turned into a product. Here comes the real test: will you, the customer, respond to the advertising and buy enough of the product to earn the company a profit and justify the company’s risk and investment?
5. Selling and distribution
The manufacturer’s managing director cannot retire to the country. He cannot wave a magic wand over you and make you go on buying his product, however good it is. His sales force must go on persuading and reminding multiple store buyers and round-the-corner-shopkeepers to buy, stock, display and sell it to you. His distribution manager must ensure that goods are always available, so that you – the customer – can buy what you want and when you want it.
From: E. McGregor. Advertising.
Preparing the Text
A.Studying the language
1. “meticulously” (1), “affect” (1), “the lot” (2): find suitable substitutes.
2. “go ahead” (3): explain in English.
3. What is a “multiple store”? (5)
4. Explain the following terms:
a) marketing executive, research executive, account executive, media executive;
b) marketing manager, production manager, distribution manager;
c) managing director;
d) accountant;
e) packaging designer.
B. Studying the text: questions and stimuli
Try to characterize the marketing process in the form of a systematic diagram:
- the different stages;
- people involved and their function;
1. What is the first stage in the marketing process? What is the function of marketing executives, production managers etc.?
2. What is the second step? What do the different experts want to try to find out next?
3. Discuss the term “market research”. What are the methods employed? Make a list of questions that might be asked in such an interview.
4. What is the third step? What is meant by “sales promotion schemes” and “advertising campaign”?
5. What is the last step?
C. Points for comments and discussion
1. Discuss the role of “market research” in modern economy.
Suggestion:
- Why is market research so important in the marketing process? (to lower the risk, to avoid losing money, etc.)
- Could we do without it?
- Why was not it needed in the 19th century? (people’s needs simple and obvious; today more sophisticated)
- What are the problems in connection with market research? Is it really so easy to find out what people really want?
2. Comment on: “They also test the ways in which its advantages can best be communicated to its future users” (15).
Suggestion:
- Explain the sentence. (they, its)
- Is that the whole story (the only purpose of advertising)?
Text 19
1. Advertising has been among England’s biggest growth industries since the war, in terms of the ratio of money earnings to demonstrable achievement. Why all this fantastic expenditure?
2. Perhaps the answer is that advertising saves the manufactures from having to think about the customer. At the stage of designing and developing a product, there is quite enough to think about without worrying over whether anybody will want to buy it. The designer is busy enough without adding customer-appeal to all his other problems of man-hours and machine [19]tolerance and stress factors. So they just go ahead and make the thing and leave it to advertiser to find eleven ways of making it appeal to purchasers after they have finished it, by pretending that it confers status, or attracts love, or signifies manliness. If the advertising agency can do this authoritatively enough, the manufacturer is [20]in clover. Other manufacturers find advertising saves them changing their product. And manufacturers hate change. The ideal product is one which goes on unchanged forever. If, therefore, for one reason or another, some alteration seems called for – how much better to change the image, the packet or the [21]pitch made by the product, rather than go to all the inconvenience of changing the product itself.
3. The advertising man has to combine qualities of three most authoritative professions: Church, Bar and Medicine. The great skill required of our priests, most highly developed in missionaries but present, indeed mandatory, in all, is the skill of getting people to believe in and to contribute money to something which can never be logically proved. At the bar, an essential ability is that of presenting the most persuasive case you can to a jury of ordinary people, with emotional appeals masquerading as logical exposition; a case you do not necessarily have to believe in yourself, just one you have studiously avoided discovering to be false. As for Medicine, any doctor will confirm that a large part of his job is not clinical treatment but faith healing. His apparently scientific approach enables his patients to believe that he knows exactly what is wrong with them and exactly what they need to put them right, just as advertising does – “Run down? You need …”. “No one will dance with you? A dab of – will make you popular”.
4. Advertising men use statistics rather like a drunk uses a lamp-post – for support rather than illumination. They will dress anyone up in a white coat to appear like an unimpeachable authority or, failing that, they will even be happy with the announcement, as used by 90% of the actors who play doctors on television.
From: David Frost/ Anthony Jay. The English.
Preparing the Text
A. Studying the language
1. “called for” (2): find a synonym.
2. What is “the Bar” (3)?
3. “presenting the most persuasive case” (3): give a paraphrase.
4. “emotional appeals masquerading as logical exposition” (3): explain.
5. What is the Russian equivalent of “faith healing” (3)?
6. “unimpeachable” (4): find a synonym.
7. Explain the meaning of “failing that” (4).
B. Studying the contents
1. “advertising saves the manufactures from having to think about the customer” (2):
a). To which kind of products do you think could this statement apply?
b). To which products does this statement not apply?
2. “the inconvenience of changing the product itself” (2): Which are these inconveniences from the advertiser’s point of view?
3. “What kind of emotional appeal do advertisers find it profitable to play upon”? (texts17, 18): Sum up the different emotional appeals mentioned in connection with “Church, Bar and Medicine” (3).
4. Which types of products are generally recommended to us by “unimpeachable authorities” (4)? Compare especially TV advertising spots.
5. Compare texts 17 and 19. Try to work out the different points of view as to the role of advertising.
6. Where in the text does it become obvious that the author’s attitude towards advertising is an ironical one?
Text 20
1. Advertising is advocacy. It is concerned with motivating people. However, before you can motivate people you have to understand them. Thus a proper understanding of people is essential to the advertising man and woman, as indeed it is to politicians, entertainers, salesman, personnel managers and all whose task it is to influence other human beings.
2. To talk about understanding people is easy enough. To achieve it is quite another matter. As any personnel manager knows, human beings embody a wide range of needs and impulses, sometimes exasperatingly so. In their work these needs and impulses cannot be satisfied by money alone. People seek other things besides salaries and wages. They want individual identity. They want the importance of the job they do, and thus of themselves, to be fully recognized. They want status and commensurate privileges which demonstrate possession of it. They set great store by the human face of their working conditions in terms of how accessible management is, how reasonable it is in its dealings with employees, how enlightened it is in consultation and communication, how fair the system of promotions and, not least, how friendly their colleagues are. A job therefore is more than something which provides the employee’s bread and butter. It is an integral part of life and under the right conditions it should be the source of wide-ranging satisfactions.
3. Note the word “ satisfactions ”. People seek satisfactions not things. This concept is particularly important in marketing and advertising; it is based on the recognition that people do not buy products, they buy satisfactions. Take face powder as an example. Any chemist can make it. It is not difficult to formulate it or to mix. The result could be plainly packaged and offered for sale fairly cheaply. As a number of retail chemists have discovered few women are interested. To provide satisfaction, face powder has to be attractively packaged and presented. It has to have an inviting scent. It has to carry an aura of glamour. In short, the woman seeks not a box of powder as such but the promise of beauty – and the promise is absent when the proposition is boiled down to something mere utility. The same principle operates in everything we buy. A car is not a piece of machinery or even solely a means of transport. It is a satisfaction wherein we express our desire for freedom to go wherever we please and to demonstrate to others our capacity to do so.
4. Quite clearly, therefore, if we are in the advertising business we have to reach a disciplined understanding of human motivation. In our everyday lives as individuals we might get by with the kind of pragmatic understanding of people that is restricted to those we deal with, our relatives, friends, colleagues etc. In advertising we require a more systematic and broadly based knowledge of motivation.
From: Eric McGregor. Advertising.
Preparing the Text
A. Studying the language
1. “entertainer” (1): give the Russian equivalent.
2. “their” (2): Which word does it refer to?
3. “commensurate” (2): find a suitable substitute.
B. Studying the contents
1. What is the example of face powder supposed to illustrate?
2. How does the author try to show that “human beings embody a wide range of needs and impulses” (2)?
C. Studying the text: questions and stimuli
1. What is the thesis the author tries to justify in this text?
2. Sum up the arguments of the text using certain key-words as a starting point:
a). What is the purpose of advertising? – purpose of advertising; (key-word: “motivating people” (1))
b). How can people be motivated? – methods employed; (key-word: “advocacy” (1))
c). What are these motives? – people’s motives; (key-words; “needs and impulses” (2), “status and commensurate privileges” (2))
d). Can you think of other needs and impulses advertisements might appeal to?
D. Points for comment and discussion
According to the author a car is “a satisfaction wherein we express our desire for freedom to go wherever we please and to demonstrate to others our capacity to do so” (3). What other needs might cars satisfy?
REVISION TEST 2
I. Choose the best word to complete the sentence.
1. We need a name for the product which will … to teenagers.
a. draw b. appeal c. attract
2. With effective advertising a company can become a … name.
a. home b. home-made c. household
3. The first thing an ad must do is … the reader’s eye.
a. catch b. reach c. find
4. During the commercial …, there was an advertisement for a new teenagers’ magazine.
a. pause b. break c. interval
5. We do the art work while he writes the … for each advertisement.
a. media b. copy c. copyright
6. Advertising on TV is very expensive during … viewing hours.
a. high b. big c. peak
7. The advertising copy is probably the most common form of ….
a. promotion b. media c. design
8. The article mentions a number of different … - cigars, yoghurt and jeans, for example.
a. gadgets b. products c. staff
9. Benetton succeeded in creating a truly international ….
a. company b. production c. campaign
10. We did a lot of research to ensure that the advertisement would appeal to the … audience.
a. goal b. aim c. target
II. Complete each space in the text with a word formed from the word in capitals.
A man takes a single (1) spoonful of a substance and SPOON
puts it in his mouth. Instantly he is transported to another
world, a place of surreal visions and swirling colours. He
rushes (2) ….. into this parallel universe. HEAD
What is this (3) ….. compound with the TERRIFY
power to induce such a mind-blowing trip? Is it some kind
of drug that makes the user hallucinate? No, it’s just a humble
cereal ad on TV. The Fruity Wheat ad is the latest in a long
line of (4) ….. ads whose imagery appears to CONTROVERSY
draw on the effects of mind-altering substances. Colin Rees
of the “Stop TV Advertising” group said: “I find this and other
such ads totally (5) …... Take this staff and ACCEPT
you will experience something out of the world – the
(6) ….. of the ad seems clear to me. The IMPLY
companies who make them will say that any relation to
drugs is just one (7) ….. of the advert, and not INTERPRET
one that they (8) …... When I complained INTENTION
about this ad, I was told that it didn’t contain any
(9) ….. messages. I thought that was a bit CONSCIOUS
rich – I think the message in it is blatantly obvious! And I
don’t think we should be giving TV viewers any
(10) ….. in that respect”. ENCOURAGE
III. Read the text without a dictionary and choose the best variant for each statement.
One of the strongest thing about controversy over advertising is that the greater the fuss, the more of a mystery the industry itself seems to become. This is because advertising is a passionate area. It seems to affect those who attack it and those who defend it in remarkably similar ways. Before long both are exhibiting the same compulsive[22] desire to overstate their case so that it is difficult to believe that the critics and the defenders of advertising are even arguing over the same thing.
But just as it seemed sensible to us to regard advertising without going to either extreme, so it also seemed logical to try and find out, as cold-bloodedly as we could, what advertising in Britain in the “sixties” really was.
We knew that it consumed over £500 million a year, or roughly 2 per cent of the national income. We knew that it employed something over 200, 000 individuals, the majority of whom were paid salaries considerably above the national average. And we knew that it was supposedly run in accordance with certain rather vague and often complex rules and “professional” taboos.
But once we tried finding out exactly what all this money went on, what all these highly paid individuals did for it (and with it), and how the rules and taboos influenced them, a curious thing happened. This strange animal called advertising, so disliked by its critics and so beloved by its defenders, began to disappear. In its place were advertising men and advertising agencies – all working in different ways and to different rules and all showing quite startling differences of competence, taste and effectiveness.
We started by expecting to find a conspiracy of insensitive persuaders. We ended by discovering groups of well paid, highly anxious individuals all trying, in their various ways, to cope with a number of opposed and often contradictory forces within their work. Their success of failure in reconciling these forces results in the advertising we have.
All this seemed of considerable importance. For unless society is willing to give advertising a complete carte blanche[23] (which strikes us as madness) or to ban all advertising totally (which strikes us as absurdity) any future move to reform advertising will have to make the mental effort to understand what it is about and why its practitioners behave as they do. To understand this necessity will be to understand these forces that shape their working lives.
1. The advertising industry is a mystery to most people because
a. everyone makes such a fuss about it.
b. it is such a controversial subject.
c. its critics and defenders are not really talking about the same thing.
d. no one seems able to discuss it calmly and rationally.
2. The writers began their investigation of advertising
a. in an analytical, unprejudiced frame of mind.
b. in an attempt to discover its professional secrets.
c. in order to expose its faults to the general public.
d. to find out the basic facts and figures connected with its organization.
3. What surprised the writers most, once they had begun their investigation, was that
a. advertising executives were so highly paid.
b. it was impossible to find out where all the money went.
c. the rules and taboos they had heard about did not exist.
d. there was so little consistency that it was impossible to generalize.
4. The average advertising executive, in the writers’ opinion, is
a. incapable of coping with so many conflicting forces.
b. more sensitive and concerned about his work than is generally believed.
c. overpaid and overworked
d. anxious to reconcile conflicting individuals.
5. The writers believe that society should
a. let advertisers go on more or less as they like.
b. impose strict controls on all advertising immediately.
c. reform advertising on the lines they themselves have proposed
d. study advertising and its problems before making changes.
EXTRA ACTIVITIES
Promoting a product involves developing a “Unique Selling Proposition” (“USP”): the FEATURES and BENEFITS which make it unlike any of the competing products.
There are four stages in promoting a product (“AIDA”):
1. Attract the ATTENTION of potential customers.
2. Arouse INTEREST in the product.
3. Create a DESIRE for its benefits.
4. Encourage customers to take prompt ACTION.
A. Cut outtwo of your favourite advertisements from a magazine or newspaper – you might like to cut out one ad you hate as well, perhaps!
1. Study the advertisements and discuss these questions with your partner.
- What exactly is the product being sold?
- What kind of customers is each advertisement directed at?
- What is the main advantage of the product according to the ad?
- What human motives does the ad appeal to? (headline, body copy, illustration)
- How does the ad appeal to these motives? (brand image it tries to convey; “tricks” in order to interest the reader – rhetorical effect, ambiguity, figures of speech, colloquial language, snob appeal etc.).
- What changes would have to be made to the style or tone of the ads to make them suitable for our country (if they are foreign ads)?
- Which is the best ad, do you think? Why?
2. Show the ads you have cut from magazines to the members of your group. Present each one to the group covering these points:
- Target customers
- The USP of the product: its features and benefits
- How the ad works in terms of the four stages of “AIDA”
- How the style would have to be changed for other markets
Use the following phrases:
I’d like to show you an ad that really impressed me.
What do you think of this ad? It shows …
This ad seems to be aimed at …
According to this ad the USP of this product is …
What I don’t like about this ad is …
B. What are your favourite TV commercials? Describe them to your partners and explain why you think they are effective.
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