1.5. Adverts

To help you do this homework it might be a good idea to gather together some examples of adverts and magazines.

Look at the adverts in the press. How do they try to make you buy the thing they are selling? Look out for slogans and phrases that they use. How is the advert set out? How big is the writing on the advert? Where is it? Does the advert use a picture to get your attention? For homework I would like you to design a magazine advert for one of the following:

a new chocolate bar

a fizzy drink

a shampoo

a toothpaste

a toy

1.6. Advertising

No one can seriously pretend to remain unaffected by advertisement. It is impossible to turn a blind eye to the pressing offers to buy this or that article that fill our streets, newspapers and magazines. Even at your place advertisers are waiting to pounce on you when you tune in to your favorite radio or television programmers. No matter how hard you try to resist, those clever tunes and catch-phrases are sure to stay in your minds. Do you know why? Because all of them make strong appeal to your emotions. And no amount of logical argument can convince so much as this attack on your emotions.

The resolution recently adopted by the Advertising Association meeting in Brighton pledged the delegates to stick to standards of advertising practice born of the belief that truthful advertising builds up both character and good business. That’ is the ideal advertising. In reality, however, there are countless means of deception of customers, and one has to admit that in most cases advertising is far from telling the truth.

Advertising works on two levels: the first is content - what the advertisements actually say; the second is the semi-conscious level in which all kinds of images are used (success, sexual power, beauty, nostalgia, return to nature). What the customer has to do in order to resolve his basic dilemma is to buy the product that is being advertised Advertising is attached enormous attention to in commerce. It is usually a product of joint efforts of talented painters, masters of words and artistic designers. More than that, there are special institutions which are engaged in studying a customer's psychology, the latter being particularly important for monopolies' knowledge.

According to Vance Packard, an American researcher, over nine billion dollars are usually spent annually on advertising in the U.S.

(From "Sixty steps to précis" by Alexander)

Vocabulary:

to pounce on	Набрасываться, налетать, обрушиваться
catch-phrases	лозунг
pledged	Связывать обещанием
to attach enormous attention to	Привлекать внимание к

1.7. Effective Ad Design Takes Full Advantage Of Buyers’ 4 Ad Reading Habits

Attract the buyers when they scan	Size, border, color
Attract the buyers when they scan	Illustration, logos, slogans, headlines
Convince the buyers when they read	Reliability, authorized sales& services, specialization, completeness of service
Prompt the buyers to take action	Convenience, information, map, invitation phrase