Home > The Power of Advertising

The Power of Advertising examines whether advertisements positively or negatively impact our society because we are constantly exposed to them in our daily lives. By the end, you will be able to discuss how advertisers use techniques to persuade us to buy products and whether we should view advertisements more critically.
Time
60-80 minutes
Main Skills
Listening and Reading
Theme and topic
Social Organisation: The Power of Advertising
Download Available
Audio Transcript and questions
Advertisers are using several psychological tactics to get us to buy a lot more this holiday season. Watch the video and answer the questions that follow.
Listen to the interview with Gary Philips taking about advertising.
Read the text about advertising and then answer the questions that follow.
Advertising
At first, advertising was meant to let people know about the goods on the market. It was as easy as letting people know what you have in your store or what services you provide. Over the years, advertising has become a big business that does more than just inform. It also tries to convince and change people. It's a way to change people's minds.
Advertising has turned into a kind of culture with devoted fans. In this way, it gets the attention of manufacturers and service providers who want to get ahead of their competitors. Unfortunately, to meet the manufacturers' ever-growing needs, advertisers have made most of us want things we don't need and buy more than we should. This is a desire for things that are bad for us and would be better off without. It makes us completely crazy by messing with our minds. We are targeted by billboards, TV, and radio ads from a very young age, which shapes how we see the world as we grow up. In advertising, the catchphrases are "you're cool, hip, sophisticated, and on the hook" if you use this or that product.
People are affected by advertising. Most ads have pictures showing how emotional well-being is linked to getting things and how independence and fun are linked to drinking. Advertising also makes people care more about products than real people, which hurts their relationships with other people. We're trapped in a web of advertising, where brands of beer and cigarettes take over our thoughts and make us forget about our core family values.
When you look at most ads critically, you'll see how persuasive the advertisers are at telling us what, when, how much, and why to buy. But most people think that advertising doesn't affect them. This is exactly what advertisers want us to believe, that "the people decide" in the end. If you think about it, no businessperson who wants to make money would spend so much money to make a 30-second ad that might not even be seen by a hundred people, let alone convince them to buy. How we perceive the impact of advertising on our lives determines what advertisers can get away with.
Here are the keywords and phrases to learn:
- addictive
- advertising
- appeal to our emotions
- capture our attention
- constant fear
- consumer
- convince
- commercial
- competition
- designed to persuade
- devoted fans
- ever-growing needs
- inform
- persuasive
- positive message
- subconscious
- techniques
- Make a poster using persuasive language. It could be an event, a place or destination, a university or school, or a product you use. Be prepared to explain the rhetorical devices that you included in your design.
- Describe an advert you saw recently. You should say:
a. What the product/services was.
b. Where you saw it.
c. How was the product advertised.
d. And how you felt about it. - Write an article about the following. Today, the high sales of popular consumer goods reflect the power of advertising and not the real needs of the society in which they are sold. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
- Imagine you are organising an exhibition. Write a brochure that encourages people to come to the exhibition. You can make up information about the exhibition or you can write about an existing exhibition that you have seen.
- Discuss the following questions.
a. Do you remember any adverts you saw when you were younger?
b. Do you often buy things after seeing an advert?
c. Do you like it when celebrities advertise products?
d. Do you think advertising will change in the future?
e. How is advertising different now in relation to the past?
f. Some people think it is unethical to advertise to children. Do you agree?

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