Things to consider:
- It is hard to think of a "positive" or "useful" advertisement because many of them are interruptive, fake, misleading, or useless. You can think or invent one about a useful item that you can use at home.
- Don't forget that an advertisement can be for:
- Service (online or offline)
- Item
- Concert or other event
- Food
- Medicine
- Discounts or Big sale
- You can add a lot of opinions on this topic as many people dislike advertisements a lot. They have become too pervasive and a massive waste of time and so you can express your honest thoughts at the start and the end of P2.
Part 2: Sample Answer
This is a really difficult question because I actively try to avoid looking at advertisements, as much as possible. I have a very negative opinion about the advertising industry and I believe deeply that it has to be regulated dramatically. At the moment, advertisements are literally an invasion of privacy and I find 90% of them useless and a massive waste of time. Now, if I had to think of one positive example of an advert I’ve seen… that would be an ad about a learning platform called Skillshare.
I give my honest opinion about the advertising industry.
Skillshare is a platform with a lot of custom-made video courses that include an easy learning system, a project practice, and submission of that project. It is an amazing system for learning all sorts of digital skills like software, programming, management, design, animation, photography and so much more. It is a fantastic place for young people to learn the necessary practical skills to add to their resumes.
I introduce the product of the advertisement.
About the advertisement itself. Well, I consume a lot of YouTube videos daily. Some of my favorite channels get sponsored by Skillshare. What does that mean? Well, they get paid some money to advertise the use of the platform. What they usually do is at the start of the video they disclose that the video is sponsored by the platform, and then run a short clip showing using the service. It’s pretty straightforward and it’s not like any traditional ad. There is no music, no characters, and no silly quotes. It is literally them using the app or website and clicking through the courses.
I describe the ad.
I have seen this type of plug-in ad so many times already, and although I know it by heart and I usually skip forward to pass the ad, I appreciate the platform. I have personally used it and learned digital design on it, and I can guarantee that this platform is not misleading, is an absolute treasure, and is reasonably priced too. So, yeah, give it a try haha.
I end with an opinion on the product in the ad.
Idioms and Phrases
Sentence starters and Linking words
Vocabulary related to the topic
Business Phrases
PART 3 QUESTIONS
In Part 3 we will discuss the advertising industry, types of ads, and shopping through ads.
Examiner: What do you think of online advertising?
The Good
- It is possible to get a new idea or to be introduced to a new item by looking at ads. It has happened to me and many others, while scrolling online, seeing a new tool or a new gadget that looks intriguing or even life-changing. Ads could lead to positive gains in life, although that chance is slim.
The Bad
- To be honest, there are a lot of fake and misleading online ads. A person has to develop the skill of distinguishing and separating fact from fiction and understand that ads are always highly exaggerated and oftentimes completely unreal. Many have been burned by clicking on the wrong ad.
ANSWER:
Examiner: What makes a great advertisement?
Appearance
- Many people get attracted by the appearance of the ad. The ad can contain beautiful graphics, interesting cartoons or cartoon characters, animals, or attractive people. In any case, there is something that can be liked about the appearance or the setting of the ad.
Familiar Faces
- Let's face it, the most common way to attract people to look at an ad is by using either a celebrity or a famous character from movies or cartoons. This strategy works better than any other by far, and companies pay millions to famous artists, singers, players, or actors to represent their brand to the world.
ANSWER:
Examiner: What do people usually buy through ads?
Necessary
- Of course, people can buy things they need or find useful through social media or shopping apps. They can see clothes, shoes, or other accessories being advertised directly on their screens. Additionally, there is a lot of food being advertised as well. People can go to the place or order things to be delivered to their homes directly.
Unnecessary
- Often times we are being pressured through FOMO (fear of missing out) campaigns to buy a lot of products and items that are on discount. We have invented these big online discount holidays like Black Friday, Christmas Valentine's Day, and many more that pressure us subconsciously to buy items we might never use or need.
ANSWER:
I guess quite a lot of cheap or discount goods. When it comes to advertising, they often follow large festivals and celebrations, and before or during those, they explode every website or application with tons of ads. At that time people can buy brand items like shoes or bags, luxury or semi-luxury items like watches or electronics, and even food. To be fair, at times a person can score some really nice deals out there, so there are some advantages to following advertisements around those times. Aside from that, these days there are a lot of digital, fully online goods like video game skins and other purchases, that people can’t wait to buy on discount.
Examiner: Does buying new things make people happy?
A Case for Yes
- It definitely makes people happy on the surface. You can see how satisfied people are when they go shopping. Shopping has become a real hobby or a lifestyle and you have people doing it as regularly as possible, even centering their whole personality around that hobby. Buying things gives a sweet rush of dopamine to our brains and that is satisfying.
A Case for No
- It may look like people are happy while shopping, however, that happiness diminishes with every purchase. A lot of people get into this trap where they need to feel happy and so they keep buying more and more items, clothes, or trinkets, but those give them less and less happiness as time goes by. And not to mention that this is extremely dangerous for their financial well-being.
ANSWER:
It seems it does. In our lifetimes we’ve completely embraced consumerism, consuming or buying cheap, short-term, or short-use items all the time. Shopping and purchasing new stuff releases dopamine in our brains and makes us happy, chemically and psychologically. The problem is that the more we do it, the less satisfaction we get from each purchase, and so eventually, buying a single t-shirt or a pair of socks becomes an emotionless act. People then progress into buying more and more items they don’t need to only satisfy their ever-increasing need for happiness. It’s a vicious cycle.
Examiner: Do people watch useless advertisements?
Yes
- It is beyond any doubt that we consume a ton of useless advertisements all the time. For instance, while scrolling on social media, we get targeted with a lot of banner ads and video ads for different items. Oftentimes these are luxury items that cost a lot of money and most people cannot afford, although some will get tricked into buying something expensive on credit.
Yes 2
- Oftentimes we get targeted by ads for services that we don't particularly need, but that is because those companies have started a huge marketing campaign at that moment. It could be useless insurance offers, investment courses, college degrees, or shady "get rich quick" schemes. There are a ton of fake and misleading advertisements these days and they are a plague.
ANSWER:
All the time. Even with the most advanced technology we have, our search engines do not know us completely. Don’t get me wrong, they are learning a lot about our habits already. Our data and information are constantly being gathered and sold to third-party advertising agencies, who then try to “target” us with the right ads. At times that is effective, however, I believe most of the advertising is a miss at the moment. To be fair it is a big problem for advertisers too, although I wouldn’t lose sleep on that. Personally, I see useless ads all the time. And the irony of that is that I would never buy any of the things I am being shown regularly and that’s a huge loss for the advertisers.
Examiner: Do you think there is too much advertising in our daily lives?
Online
- If we are talking about the online world, it is absolutely the case. Anything we look at is basically a sort of advert these days. They are in our videos, in or in between our movies or TV series, all over the websites we use and even finding their way into modern video games. It is impossible not to see ads online and it is really annoying.
Offline
- We are surrounded by ads on every corner and on every building or vehicle. There are billboards, posters on the walls, big screens everywhere, buses and cars completely covered in ads, and so on. We can't escape from the fact that we are being advertised constantly all the time.
ANSWER:
I mentioned that earlier, but yes, I believe advertising has invaded every single aspect of our personal time, personal space, and personal entertainment. They used to be on billboards you could ignore and between movies on TV. You could switch the channel at that time. These days they are everywhere in our video games, in and on top of our favorite TV series, during our news scroll, and anywhere we look at. We can choose to ignore them, however, they are becoming more and more unavoidable and that needs to stop. Our life is not supposed to be surrounded by ads and we need to fight against that happening, as it actually is.