• free advertising when satisfied customers recommend products to their friends
• advertising that mentions the company’s name but not a specific product
• companies that handle advertising for clients
• a contract with a company to produce its advertising
• the amount of money the company plans to spend on developing its advertising and buying media time or space
• the statement of objectives of an advertising campaign that a client works out with an advertising agency
• the advertising of a particular product or service during a particular period of time.
• a defined set of customers whose needs a company plans to satisfy
• the people who choose where to advertise in order to reach the right customers
• the fact that a certain amount of advertising is necessary to attract a prospective customers’ attention
• choosing to spend the same amount on advertising as one’s competitors
• advertising during periods or seasons when sales are normally relatively poor

II. Translate the terms you got in I. Use them in the sentences of your own.

Discussion

I. Which of the following claims do you agree with? Give your reasons.

1. Advertising is essential for business, especially for launching new consumer products.
2. A large reduction of advertising will decrease sales.
3. Advertising often persuades people to by the things they don’t need.
4. Advertising often persuades people to by the things they don’t want.
5. Advertising lowers the public’s taste.
6. Advertising raises prices.
7. Advertising does not present a true picture of products.
8. Advertising has a bad influence on children.

II. With your partner, make a short dialogue about advertising. Discuss several points from above. Try to sound persuasive.

Listening

Listen once to the three radio commercials, which come from music-based radio stations in London. What are the products and services being advertised?

Now listen again to each of the commercials in turn as many times as necessary to answer the following questions.

Commersial 1

- Which three aspects of the service are emphasized?

- What, according to the ad, will be the effect of the first two of the on the customer?

- Why do you think these three aspects were chosen, and why does the ad use these particular verbs?

- What is the short last sentence of the ad?

- What else does the ad use apart from words?

Commersial 2

- What is the “horror story” here and why?

- Unusually, the listener isn’t expected to understand everything that is said in this ad. Why not?

- The ad mentions “home entertainment systems”. What other terms does it use instead of the more common stereo, radio, television and DVD?

- Do you find this ad amusing?

Commersial 3

- How does the ad give an Italian “flavour”? Can you think of any other way in which this could have been done?

- Which of these three ads do you prefer and why?

Creative Task

In small groups, write a script for a 20-second commercial to be played on a popular radio station, advertising either a well-known product some form of travel to your country. Remember that you have to persuade and inform, and are not supposed to say anything misleading or untruthful. You are free to invent the name of the company, the details of its service etc. You may use music or just indicate what is used besides a voice / voices.