Matching

Now try the task

Look at the following statements (Question 1-5) and the list of people below. Match each statements with the correct person A-D.

Effective advertising

In recent year, advertising has been more preoccupied with grabbing attention and sustaining interest than with transferring persuasive messages. According to Sean Brierley, this has largely been due to a perception that advertising needed to stand out and appeal through humorous, artistic or educational content in order to be well received by consumers. The agencies who produced these kinds of commercials argued that, because there was so little product difference, advertisers needed to provide difference through the advertising.

Others attached this view: ‘Advertising used to be about persuading people to want your product. Now the task seems to be to make people admire your advertising,’ complained one industry commentator (Wilkins, 1998).

This kind of debate is not new, Rosser Reeves called ‘art’ advertising on the TV in the 1950s ‘vampire video’, arguing that it distracts the viewer from the product and makes the commercial’s selling message less effective.

Brierley notes that the debate around ‘effective’ advertising became much more intense in the 1990s with increase in media costs and declining sales. Other experts also pointed out the consumers were less naïve and more professional and cynical then they had been. Being more aware of the processes of manufacturing, marketing and communication, it was left that ‘a conclusion which the viewer has reached himself will last longer and be better internalized’ (Lannon 1993).

1  It is unfortunate that the focus of advertising has changed.

2  Reduced profits was one reason why advertisements changed.

3  Consumers need to feel they have make their own decisions.

4  A heavy focus on the advertisement, rather than the product, is unsuccessful.

5  these days we expect advertisements to be attractive and entertain us.