Advertising tricks

Task 1. Discuss with the group:

· Why do some advertisements and commercials sound so convincing?

· What tricks do advertisers use?

Task 2. Below you'll find a list of techniques advertisers commonly use to persuade us to buy their products.

Association of ideas

Key words

Guilt

“Science”

Expertise

“The camera never lies”

Repetition

Brand names

Keeping up with the Joneses

Find out exactly what each of these advertising techniques means by reading the descriptions below and matching them correctly with one of the head­ings from the list above.

ADVERTISING TRICKS

1. "Before and after"

Some products are advertised as having a remarkable and immediate effect. We are shown the situation be­fore using the product, which is con­trasted with the situation that follows its use. Taking a tablet for headache in such advertisements can have truly remarkable effect. For not only has the headache gone but the person who had it often gets a new hair-do or a new set of clothes and sometimes even moves into a more modern, better fur­nished house.

2..............................................................

One thing reminds us of another — especially if we often see them togeth­er. For some people snow may suggest Christmas, for others an expensive car may suggest wealth. The advertiser encourages us to associate his product with the things we really want — a good job, a sport car, nice clothes, a beautiful girl-friend and, perhaps, most of all — a feeling of importance. The “image” of a product is based on these associations and the advertiser often creates a “good image” by show­ing us someone who uses his product and who leads the kind of life we'd like to lead.

3..............................................................

Advertisement often encourages us to believe that if someone has been successful in one field, he should be regarded as an authority in other field. The advertiser knows that there are certain people we admire and trust because they are famous sportsmen, actors or singers, and he believes that if a certain well-known person uses his product, we’ll want to use it too. That’s why so many advertisements feature famous people.

4..............................................................

Maybe we can't always believe what we are told, but surely we must ac­cept what we are actually shown. The trouble is that when we look at the photo we don't know how it was tak­en, or even what was actually photo­graphed. Is that delicious-looking juice really juice or just colored water? Are the colours in fact so bright or has a special filter been used? It's often dif­ficult to tell, but you can sometimes notice the photograph tricks if you look carefully enough.

5..............................................................

If you keep talking about some­thing long enough, eventually people will pay attention to you. Many ad­vertisements are based on this prin­ciple. If we hear the name of a pro­duct many times a day, it will finally come into our head. And if in a shop we have to choose some product from a variety of similar brands, we are likely to buy the one we've heard about. In fact, we don't make the choice our­selves but the advertiser helps to make it for us.

6..............................................................

In this age of moon flights, heart transplants and wonder drugs we are all impressed by science. If an adver­tiser links his advertisement with a scientific fact, there is a chance we can be blinded by scientists' opinion about the product (for example, a toothpaste). The question is simply whether the impressive air of the new discovery or the "man-made miracle" is advertised to help us or just to trick.

7..............................................................

Advertisers may try to make us buy a product by suggestion that most people, or "the best" people, already use it and that we will no doubt want to follow them. No one likes to be inferior to others and these advertise­ments suggest that you will be unless you buy the product.

8..............................................................

The manufacturer needs a name for his product, and of course he looks for a name that will do more than just identify or label: he wants a name that brings suitable associations as well — the ideas that the word brings to mind will help sell the product.

9..............................................................

Most advertisements contain certain words that are to be persuasive, but at the same time to be informative. In describing a product, copy-writers in­sert words that will provoke certain feelings, associations and attitudes. Some words — "golden", for example — seem to have been so successful in selling that advertisers use them almost as if they were magic keys to increase sales.

10..............................................................

Advertisers may provoke feelings that you are not doing the best for those, you love most. For example, an advertisement may suggest that any mother who really loves her children uses a certain product. If she doesn't, she might start to think of herself as a bad mother who doesn't love her fam­ily. So she might go and buy that particular product rather than go on feeling bad about it.

Task 3. Translate into Russian.

remarkable and immediate effect

to encourage smb to do smth

a delicious-looking juice

to keep taking about smth

a variety of similar brands

heart transplant

to be blinded by scientific facts

No one likes to be inferior to others.

suitable associations

a man-made miracle

Task 4. Translate into English.

принимать лекарство

переехать в новый дом

знаменитость

век полетов на луну

фотографировать

преуспевать в жизни

обращать внимание на к.-л.

вызывать к.-л. ощущения

Task 5. Make some sentences of your own with the words and word combinations from Tasks 3 and 4.

Task 6. Train your Modals. Translate into English.

a) Вероятнее всего, выбирая в магазине зубную пасту, вы купите ту, рекламу которой чаще видели по телевизору, если, конечно, вам позволят финансы.

b) Не следует доверять слишком «ярким» словам: «прекрасный», «лучший», «надежный» - вы можете попасть в ловушку.

c) Всем рекламодателям приходится соблюдать определенные правила рекламирования товаров.

d) На телевидении вот-вот должна появиться новая реклама телевизоров LG.

e) У кого-то реклама дорогих автомобилей может вызвать положительные эмоции, а кого-то просто раздражать.

Task 7. Train your Passive. Translate into English.

a) Некоторые лекарственные средства рекламируются так, будто они имеют мгновенный результат.

b) Чаще мы верим не в то, что нам говорят, а в то, что нам показывают.

c) В век полетов на луну, изобретения компьютера мы находимся под впечатлением научного знания.

d) Товары, продаваемые на распродаже, значительно дешевле, чем в обычных магазинах.

e) Если кто-то преуспел в одном, это не значит, что его следует рассматривать как авторитет в другом.

Task 8. Points for discussion.

· Find examples of advertisement on Russian TV in order to explain how these advertising techniques work. Can you suggest some other advertising tech­niques?

· Do you think that some techniques are more effective than others?

& — READING&SPEAKING

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14