Monologue 5 «Advertising»
Active Vocabulary: 29, Grammar Structures: 11, Linkers: 14, Total: 1098 words.
Today advertising surrounds us everywhere – advertising on YouTube before watching videos,
advertising in social networks, advertising in transport, and advertising in cinema and so on,
because you can list for a very long time. And what is its main goal? The answer to this question
in Vance Packard’s witty statement: «Advertising is the art of aiming at the head to get into the
pocket». In this essay, I will cover different aspects of advertising.
First of all, it is necessary to clarity the definition of advertising. Advertising is the act to «plug»
a product. It has a huge impact on the choice of people, especially those who lack critical
thinking and an established view of the world. Advertisers use various manipulations that appeal
an advert to people and try to distort someone’s view, so that they buy a product. The frequency
with which these advertisements are shown, for example, on television is also important. In
addition to the usual advertisements in the intervals between programs, it is also break a program
with a commercial. And the more often people are shown an advertisement for a particular
product, the more they become interested in it. Therefore, many of us go and buy this product
and the advertising task is considered completed.
What makes a good advert? There are many ways and tricks. You need to follow the AIDA
formula. That is practice advertising in terms of 4 aspects attention, interest, desire and action.
Focusing on this formula, firstly, you have an attention-grabbing memorable slogan. Secondly,
you have an eye-catching recognizable logo. Thistly, your advertising needs to have a persuasive
message. Fourthly, for even more audience engagement it would be nice to use the intriguing
facts that are information arousing great interest on curiosity. Also the product must be spoiled
for choice. Finally, you can still to endorse an efficient product. All this will help to be an
attractive target for sponsors and successfully sell the product.
Agree we all at least once came across advertising from which we want to quickly get away, get
rid of. This is bad advertising. But what could be wrong? Firstly, the product itself may not be of
interest to buyers. Advertising, for example, skis will be irrelevant in hot countries. And if the
advertisement is not been created by the idea hamster then we can immediately say that the
advertisement will be a failure. Secondly, making a catchy but irritating jingle is also a bad idea.
Yes, it will be repeated, but over time it will become even more annoying, and this, in turn, will
have a bad effect on product sales. Thirdly, you should not exaggerate the fact and claim rock-
bottom prices because, thus, you can disappoint buyers. This will badly affect the reputation of
the product and the company. And, fourthly, you need to be serious about choosing promoters,
because some may pay lip service to a product.
Now let’s talk a little about altering the image digitally in advertising. Manipulating images are
very often used in advertising. What are the reasons for this? Such photos look better than
ordinary photographs, add attractiveness to product advertising. For instance, we are much more
likely to want to buy a foundation if the model in the ad has perfect skin than if she has
breakouts, wrinkles and so on.
People’s opinion about retouch photographs is divided. Some people think that digitally-
enhanced images are good, because their attractiveness, as I mentioned, makes it easier to sell a
product. Also such photos are more pleasant visually. Others believe that the use of manipulating
images in advertising is unacceptable because it creates misunderstandings and problems. Photo
editors enhance the appearance of a person. Children and especially teens look at this and begin
to compare themselves with models. And this, in turn, lowers their self-esteem and puts pressure
on them. Also the use of such photos in advertising deceives people to some extent, cause a
controversy. Let’s back to the advert of the foundation. People buy this foundation because the
model’s face looks very good. But in reality, this face is edited and in reality it looks worse. This
is deception. My attitude to manipulating image is neutral. I think that this actually improves the
quality of the ads. But at the same time, you need to be easier to relate to such photos and enjoy
them.
There is a separate type of advertising aimed at children and teenagers. There are special ways to
attract such an audience. For example, promote junk food in gimmicky packages that is to attract
the attention of children with beautiful packaging. Also very often advertisers implement
advertisements in children’s programs or offer models of cartoon characters. These tricks really
work because children are often uncritical about adverts and manipulations that are applied to
them. Advertisers spend vast sums of money on advertising for children, but then get even more,
because children are naively led to it, asking and sometimes demanding from their parents to buy
something beautiful, but harmful, seen in advertising. This is the main danger of advertising for
children.
In this regard, recently many countries take action and impose governmental on advertising
aimed at children. In some countries there is a ban on advertising of certain products, for
instance, junk food. In other countries advertising for children of a certain age is generally
prohibited. For example, in Sweden TV advertising to children under the age of 12 is banned. It
is also possible that advertising for children is only available at certain times as in Greece, where
bans television advertisements for children’s toys between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. All this helps to
some extent to limit the damage to children and teenagers.
Interesting fact: by the age of 65, an average person has time to watch 2 million commercials.
Can you imagine how much advertising has merged into our lives?!
So it is worth summing up all of the above. As I said, advertising has penetrated very deeply into
our lives and greatly influences us and our choices. Advertising is both good and bad. This is
achieved in different ways. Nowadays, manipulating photographs used in advertising attract a lot
of attention. There are different opinions on this matter. Also, now there is a very active
attraction of the children’s audience with the help of commercials, which poses a danger to
children and society in general. Fortunately, states are trying to combat this in different ways. I
hope that the number of commercials that a person watches during his life will decrease. Be
careful what you are looking at!
