- •Education Unit 1. Learning for Life Key Vocabulary List
- •Education in Great Britain
- •Education beyond Sixteen
- •Alternative Teaching?
- •Vocabulary Exercises
- •Ex. 3. Study the following definitions and give the corresponding educational terms.
- •Ex. 4. Supply the best words in Parts a and b.
- •Education in Australia
- •Unit 2. Co-education Key Vocabulary List
- •Choose the School – not the Sex
- •Vocabulary Exercises
- •Harassment formative years flawed detriment tend fierce reinforce underachievement inequality implicit enhance
- •Students
- •Get the Girls to School
- •Key Vocabulary List
- •Public Exams in Great Britain
- •Should Examinations Be Replaced with Other Forms of Assessment?
- •How to Pass the Exams
- •Vocabulary Exercises
- •Addictive disorders Unit 1. Smoking, New Attitude Key Vocabulary List
- •Addictive Disorders
- •Tobacco – The Emerging Crisis in the Developing World
- •Smoking Role Models Girls must look at themselves for a cure
- •Cracking Down on Young Smokers
- •Burned-up Bosses Snuff out Prospects of Jobs for Smokers
- •Vocabulary Exercises
- •Unit 2. War on Drugs Key Vocabulary List
- •A War We Have to Win
- •We Need Better Ways to Deal with Drug Problems
- •How the Drug Problem Affects the Workplace
- •Dare to Say No (Drug Abuse Resistance Education)
- •Vocabulary Exercises
- •Mass media Unit 1. Newspapers Key Vocabulary List
- •The Daily Staff
- •Press Council’s 16-point Code of Practice
- •Newspaper Headlines
- •Vocabulary Exercises
- •Janet Wins Battle of the Bras
- •Woman Wins Appeal over Struggle with Police Officer
- •Unit 2. Radio and Television Key Vocabulary List
- •Radio and Television in Britain
- •The Rating Battle
- •Soap Operas
- •Vocabulary Exercises
- •Writing
- •Unit 3. Tv or not tv Key Vocabulary List
- •Television: Advantages and Disadvantages
- •Watching with Mother
- •Tv “Damages Children’s English”
- •Children Watch Too Much Television
- •Tv Violence
- •Books, Plays and Films Should Be Censored
- •Going for the Big Break / Shouting at the Box
- •Vocabulary Exercises
- •The arguments for censorship
- •The counter-arguments
- •Writing
- •Unit 4. The World of Advertising Key Vocabulary List
- •Advertisers Perform a Useful Service to the Community
- •Why is Television Advertising Capable of Manipulating People?
- •Children and Advertising
- •The Language of Advertising
- •1. Skim quickly through these advertisements. What do they have in common? What techniques do they use to attract the reader’s attention?
- •Skinny legs
- •Ashamed of prune lips?
- •Wrinkle Stick
- •2. With a partner choose two of the advertisements to read more closely. Answer these questions on style.
- •4. Work individually. For each statement, put a tick in the column which most accurately reflects your opinion.
- •Vocabulary Exercises
- •Discussion
- •Here are some arguments for and against advertising
- •Writing
- •List of the books cited
Why is Television Advertising Capable of Manipulating People?
Nowadays almost everybody watches TV. We have a large selection of channels and programmes and almost every channel is financed by advertising. Advertising on TV must be very profitable otherwise the companies would not spend so much money on it. Are we stupid then? We obviously buy the products after having seen the advertisements. No, we are not stupid, we are just being manipulated. But how?
The advertisements are repeated over and over again. When you have seen them about 50 times you subconsciously believe they are a good product. Then, when you go shopping and have three similar products to choose from, you remember the advertisements and pick the one you think is the best. That is, the product that had the advertisements that convinced you the most. I do not think that the majority of people realise that they are affected by advertisements. The advertisers also take advantage of people’s natural curiosity. They advertise products before the stores get them. When there is a product that you have not seen before, it is only natural to become curious. This kind of advertising is almost always done to advertise new films. They put together a 45 second advertisement with all the exciting parts from the film and you think I have got to see the rest of it, I will go and see that film when it comes out.
Films and popcorn, how many people have not had popcorn at the cinema? We seem to attach a certain product to a special occasion. The advertisers take advantage of this and they show us beautiful people in the adverts. We see an advertisement when it is summer, where everybody is at the beach having fun and they are all drinking Fanta. When we go to the beach we fancy a drink, so why not Fanta? We make a connection. This kind of advertisement works in two ways. We see them in the winter too and then the beach pictures make us feel good. When we go out and buy a Fanta we remember the pictures and we think about the summer and feel good.
In contrast to the advertisements where we see beautiful people on exotic beaches we have the ones where everyday people come forward and tell us about their brilliant experiences of the product. We identify with these people and it is easy to believe what they are telling us. For example people in washing powder or toothpaste adverts. What we forget to think about is that these people will be paid to say these things.
Famous people are also used to promote their own and other products. They often make the advertisement look like a talk show with a studio audience. We do not always realise that we are watching an advertisement. How can we resist buying a skin cream that is recommended by a beautiful star who looks at least ten years younger than she really is? Who doesn't want to look 30 when they are 40? What we do not think about is how many face lifts these people have had.
One could say that we are all being manipulated one way or another. We do not even realise it sometimes or we do not want to admit it. The advertisements are endlessly repeated and in the end we begin to believe them. We are all curious and want to see if a product is as good as the advertisers say it is. Furthermore we also attach certain products to certain occasions which makes us further influenced by the advertisements. When famous people tell us how great a particular product is, it is hard to resist buying it, even though there may be a similar product which is much cheaper, only it has not been promoted so well. We are not stupid, but the advertisers are very clever and know exactly how to manipulate people.
Answer the following questions about the text.
What makes the author think that we are manipulated by advertisers?
What advertising techniques are discussed by the author?
Which of them, in your opinion, are the most effective?
What is the author’s opinion about advertising? How far do you share it?
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