11. The language of advertising and its impact on the community.

Advertisers tend to think big and perhaps this is why they are always coming in for criticism. Their critics seem to resent them because they have a flair for self-promotion and because they have so much to throw around. “It is iniquitous”, they say, “that this entirely unproductive industry should absorb millions of pounds each year. It only goes to show how much profit the big companies are making. Why don’t they stop advertising and reduce the price of their goods? After all, it’s the consumer who pays… ”

The poor old consumer! He’d have to pay a great deal more if advertising didn’t create mass markets for products. It is precisely because of the heavy advertising that consumer goods are soc cheap. But we get the wrong idea if we think the only purpose of advertising is to sell goods. Another equally important function is to inform. A great deal of the knowledge we have about the household goods derives largely from the advertisements we read. Advertisements introduce us to new products or remind us of the existence of ones we already know about.

Lots of people pretend that they never read advertisements, but this claim may be seriously doubted. It is hardly possible not to read advertisements these days. Just think what a railway station or a newspaper would be like without advertisements. Would you enjoy gazing at a blank wall or reading railway bye-laws while waiting for a train? Would you like to read only closely-printed columns of news in your daily paper? A cheerful, witty advertisement makes such a difference to a drab wall or a newspaper full of the daily ration of calamities.

We must not forget either that advertising makes a positive contribution to our pocket. Newspapers, commercial radio and television companies could not subsist without these sources of revenue. The fact that we pay so little for our daily paper, or can enjoy so many broadcast programmes is due entirely to the money spent by advertisers. Just think what a newspaper would cost if we had to pay its full price!

Another thing we must not forget is the small ads, which are in virtually every newspaper and magazine. What a tremendously useful service they perform for the community! Just about anything can be accomplished through these columns. For instance, you can find a job, buy or sell a house, announce a birth, marriage and death in what used to be called the “hatch, match and dispatch” columns; but by far the most fascinating section is the personal or agony column. No other item in a newspaper provides such entertaining reading or offers such a deep insight into human nature. It is the best advertisement for advertising there is!

12) The present day position of women world-wide and in belarus

Nowadays the position of the woman in the male-dominated world is gradually changing; women’s interests have become an issue: twenty years ago they weren’t even spoken about. In Kenya for e.g. banks help women with loans, providing advice and offering technical help. In Africa as a whole, eight women out are illiterate. In India a developed plan has been introduced to improve job training for women and ensure equal access to employment. Nevertheless blatant discrimination continues to exist in some poorly-developed countries and huge advances are balanced with humiliating retreats. In Pakistan if a woman has been raped she has to have the supporting testimony of four men in order to bring charges against her assailant. In Japan most people believe that a woman should put her family ahead of the job.

On the other hand in the working world women still come a distant second to men. The unemployment, that skyrocketed everywhere, has affected women sharply. In a few countries (the USA, Japan) women enjoy a higher rate of employment than men. But in both countries women are paid less, irrespective of the level of economic development. Very often it happens that women are steered towards the traditional jobs that men don’t want and that they are blocked from higher education and skills training. Women are still heavily outnumbered by men. Even in Europe the work opportunities for women leave a lot to be desired. In Britain only a fraction of Parliament’s seats are held by women and there are no other women in the Cabinet. Lots of hard-won freedoms are lost in Islam with the spread of Islamic fundamentalism, in South Africa women aren’t covered by labor legislation, maternity benefits or unemployment insurance provisions.

Women’s Federation for World Peace is a global organization, aims at fundamental solution to the threats of the families, stemming from the decline in moral standards, increasing drug abuse and all forms of indecent sexual behavior in the world around us. It struggles for the access of women to decision-making positions. Women’s full participation in public affairs is now recognized as a fundamental condition for democracy and for achieving sustainable development. True democracy is now characterized by the full and equal participation of women in both formulating and implementing decisions.

More countries are taking steps to promote women within the political arena (in Belarus only 30% of women are in Parliament)

Women always had to struggle for their rights. Since ancient times there was a thought that woman had to devote all her time to her family, that she is not created for mental work, that she must only learn how to keep the house and how to be the keeper of the house.

Unfortunately we must admit the fact that even nowadays since childhood young girls are taught they should be passive and dependent creatures. Some girls think that they have only four occupations open for them – nurse, secretary, teacher, or mother. That only duties they have is to wash, cook and clean.

This discrimination continues afterwards when women can’t receive the same education and can’t get a job she wants. Unfortunately girls are being brainwashed into accepting that men and women have very different roles to play in society, and into believing that they have these different roles because each is more suited by nature to the one or the other.

Because of all these prejudices a woman that is bright enough, ambitious enough, has a good idea and wants to make it work, still it will be very hard for her to find a job because in the working world women come a distant second to men. In the United States and Japan for example, women enjoy a higher rate of employment than men. And in these countries the differential between men and women’s wages are very great. According to the International Organization lower wages for women are common in most countries, irrespective to the level of economic development.

Everywhere in the world women have found cultural prejudices as hard to change as political ones. The spread of Islamic fundamentalism has meant the return of the chador and the loss of many hard-won freedoms. Female circumcision is still practiced in main countries and in South Africa women aren’t covered by labour, maternity benefits or unemployment insurance provisions.

Another burning issue nowadays is women and career. No doubt, that women have the same nature abilities for mental development as men have. But some time ago because of some prejudices men thought that it was impossible for a woman to become an equally educated specialist. And all doors were closed for women, esp. in the field of science. But after a long struggle, women achieved their goals and now they can get any job they want. And men rate women highly and they are even proud to work with women who are qualified specialists and caring mothers.