A World We Live In - Unit6
.pdfmarkets fast,” says Robbins, “and you can do that a lot easier when you’re not inventing the wheel in each and every country.”
To be sure, many hurdles still stand in the way of Pan-European advertising. The disparate array of national regulations within the European Community, for one, can be daunting. In France a child actor is permitted to endorse a product only indirectly - so indirectly that a TV ad for Danish toymakers Lego was vetoed because it featured a kid dressed in the company’s signature colors. Britain is less restrictive, but it does prohibit depictions of children leaning out of high windows, walking across a road without adult supervision or receiving a gift from a stranger. Want to advertise war toys? Don’t try it in
Germany, Greece or Spain. And then, of course, some cultural differences will never fade. In the Netherlands, nudity is tolerated only in ads for products commonly used in the nude, such as shower gel. The French see nothing farfetched about showing a woman’s breasts in a commercial for yoghurt or orange juice.
The resulting headaches can discourage even the most Europeanist of advertisers. “We have to consult every single country to get clearance,” groans Michael McMurphy, an account director at Backer Spielvogel & Bates in Paris, “and then we have to make adjustments.” But help is underway from the Eurocrats, who are working to harmonize regulations. They should have common standards ready by 1992 - provided the men among them don’t run into too many Impulse women around Brussels.
(P. Privat, J. Foote, F. Gleizes)
a) Dwell on the following points:
1. Pan-European advertising as a new phenomenon of modern society. 2. Factors stimulating the development of the continent-wide advertising. 3. The method of designing Pan-European campaigns. 4. The reasons of the success and failure of Pan-European advertisements. 5. National priorities and restrictions in advertising. 6. The advantages of Pan-European advertising.
b)Think of the possible disadvantages of Pan-European advertising. Present your considerations to the class.
c)Comment on foreign advertisements on Russian TV.
X. Support or challenge the following ideas:
1. Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.
(Stephen Leacock)
2. The function of advertising is to make the worst appear better.
(Thomas Wolfe) 3. Advertising is a racket, its constructive contribution to humanity is exactly minus
zero.
(Scott Fitzgerald)
4. Advertising is the art of convincing people that they want certain things they don’t want at all; of making them dissatisfied with everything they have; of making them thoroughly unhappy.
(George Mikes) 5. Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.
(Thomas Jefferson.)
XI. Read the headlines of the advertisements. Try to guess what is advertised in each of the cases and reconstruct the original text of the advertisement.
Waterproof? Yes. Boyproof? No.
Oh, Honey!
It was then I realised no other Man would take her away from me
Be sure to stay warm this winter |
Eat and Be Merry |
They’re more than just TREES. They’re like family.
XII. Give a literary translation of the text. How does it contribute to the problems discussed in this Unit? What is a jingle?
Barbara was on the twenty-first floor of the Third Avenue building which was New York head-quarters of the Osborne J. Lewis Company - or more familiarly, OJL - one of the world’s half-dozen largest advertising agencies, with a staff of two thousand, more or less, on three skyscraper floors. If she had wanted to, instead of phoning Detroit from where she had, Barbara could have used an office in the jam-packed, creative rabbit warren one floor down, where a few windowless, cupboard-size offices were kept available for out-of-town staffers like herself while working temporarily in New York. But it had seemed simpler to stay up here, where this morning’s meeting was being held. This floor was client country. It was also where account executives and senior agency officers had their lavishly decorated and broadloomed office suites, with original Cezannes, Wyeths, or Picassos on the walls as well as built-in-bars - the latter remaining hidden or activated according to a client’s known and carefully remembered preferences. Even secretaries here enjoyed better working conditions than some of the best creative talent down below. In a way, Barbara sometimes thought, the agency resembled a Roman galley ship, though at least those below had their martini lunches, went home at nights, and - if senior enough - were sometimes allowed topside.
She walked quickly down a corridor. In the austere Detroit offices of OJL, where
Barbara worked mostly, her heels would have “tip-tapped,” but here, deep carpeting deadened their sound. Passing a door partially open, she could hear a piano and a girl singer’s voice:
“One more happy user
Has joined the millions who
Say Brisk! - please bring it briskly;
It satisfies me too.”
Almost certainly a client was in there listening, and would make a decision about the jingle - aye or nay, involving vast expenditures - based on hunch, prejudice, or even whether he felt good or breakfast had given him dyspepsia. Of course, the lyric was awful, probably because the client preferred it to be banal, being afraid - as most were - of anything more imaginative. But the music had an ear-catching lilt; recorded with full orchestra and chorus, a large part of the nation might be humming the little tune a month or two from now. Barbara wondered what Brisk was. A drink? A new detergent? It could be either, or something more outlandish. The OJL agency had hundreds of clients in diverse businesses, though the auto company account which Barbara worked on was among its most important and lucrative. As auto company men were fond of reminding agency people, the car advertising budget alone exceeded a hundred million dollars annually.
XIII. Read the text; translate it into English.Sum up the peculiarities of modern advertising in Europe and USA.
Продать во что бы то ни стало!
В развитых европейских странах, где магазины ломятся от товаров, продать чтонибудь - задача непростая. Поэтому конкуренция между фирмами приводит к настоящей рекламной войне. Для победы мало лишь денег и напора: надо еще быть и
незаурядным психологом!...
Учтите, что на Западе люди крайне пресыщены. Намереваясь продать товар, следует исходить из того, что у людей уже все есть. Это первое. Второе: потребитель знает, что все товары одного типа примерно одинаковы по качеству и стоят тоже примерно одинаково. Третье: предлагая продукцию своей отрасли, помните, что еще десяток конкурентов предлагают почти то же самое со страниц газет, журналов, с рекламных щитов и с телеэкранов. Если вы не придумаете что-то особенное, то вас просто не заметят. По оценкам специалистов, ассортимент крупных и мелких товаров, с которыми ежедневно сталкивается потребитель на Западе, включает 1100-3000 наименований. Это очень много. Европейский потребитель имеет и свою особенность: не хотите, чтобы он отвернулся от вас,- постарайтесь развлечь его и доставить ему удовольствие своей рекламой. Этим Европа чуть-чуть отличается от Америки. В Америке все еще думают, что конкурента можно просто перекричать, стоит только кричать погромче. В Европе же, где тон задают англичане со своим особым чувством юмора, потребитель хочет чего-то более изысканного.
Когда я говорю, что реклама в Европе делается в условиях всеобщей пресыщенности, это не означает, что в Европе нет бедных. Но реклама ориентируется на две разные категории людей: тех, кто может позволить себе покупать предметы роскоши, и тех, кто вынужден думать только о предметах первой необходимости.
И в заключение хочу заметить, что все вышесказанное относительно. Реклама на Западе существует вот уже сто лет. С давних пор она является сложным рыночным механизмом, который приобретает все новые, быстро развивающиеся формы - в ущерб, так сказать, “классической рекламе”. Я имею в виду то, что обычно ассоциируется с этим понятием: рекламные сюжеты по телевидению, объявления, афиши. В Америке процесс зашел уже так далеко, что из каждого доллара, истраченного на рекламу, лишь четверть идет на ее классические формы. Еще четверть тратится на то, чтобы тем или иным способом всучить товар потребителю по почте или прямо в магазине. Половина же расходуется на попытки заставить магазин включить товар в свой ассортимент, отдать предпочтение именно ему, расхвалить его и так далее. Зачастую рекламная конкуренция становится похожа на настоящую войну. Хотя в Европе она менее ощутима, но большой разницы между Европой и Америкой в этом смысле уже нет.
(По статье Т. ван Северена)
Situational Topics
1.Advertising: for and against.
2.Advertising and society.
3.Advertising and Television.
4.National and international in advertising.
5.The methods and techniques of advertising.
6.The language of advertising.
7.New tendencies in modern advertising.
8.People employed in the advertising industry.
9.The history of advertising.
10.Advertising in Russia.
Role Play
I. “Meeting in Progress”
A company asked an advertising agency to make an advertisement for their new consumer goods. The creative groups of the agency present their advertising ideas at the meeting.
The class is divided into several groups.
The creative groups: Write an advertisement for the consumer good using the proper words and devices. Try to appeal to the consumer’s emotions. Think of the way of presenting your advertisement to the client.
The Clients: Discuss the advertising ideas developed by creative groups and presented at the meeting; choose the best of them. Before making the decision settle between yourselves what kind of advertisement your company need. Your conclusion must be well-founded. Present it in written form stating your reasons for choosing this particular advertisement.
II. “Is Our Advertising Socially Responsible?”
A newspaper is going to discuss the subject of the social responsibility of advertising raised by John Leo in his article “Decadence, the Corporate Way”
Several reporters must conduct opinion poll about rule-breaking and other negative aspects of advertising. Then they present the results of their investigation to the editorial board. The members of the editorial board discuss the material and select the most interesting facts that will be used in the special issue of the newspaper.
The class is divided into several groups.
The Reporters: Think of the suitable questions on the subject stimulating the activity of the interviewed. Sum up the results and present them to the editorial board.
The Interviewed: Think of your name and background (the interviewed must be representatives of different social and age groups and various professions). Try and give reasonably long answers to the questions of the interviewer. Be ready to express your attitude to rule-breaking slogans, J. Leo’s article and advertising in general. Be prepared to use your imagination.
The Members of the Editorial Board: Listen to the information presented by the reporters and choose the most interesting answers. Ask the reporters to clarify this or that point if necessary. Think what material and in what form (interview, editorial, article, etc.) will be published in the special issue. Make a project of this issues of the newspaper.