Exercise 4. Finish the given sentences in your own words.
1. Advertisements are…
2. The role of advertising …
3. Businesses need to advertise because …
4. While planning the company’s activity …
5. Advertising strategy …
6. The art of advertising is to ….
7. To create a good advertisement …
8. Inadequate communication …
9. Advertising is often criticized because …
10. An alternative to advertising …
Activity 2. Controversial Advertising
The Italian clothing retail company Benetton is one of the most successful European franchisors. Its advertising has been highly successful but also extremely controversial, and has been banned in some countries.
In pairs, discuss the advertisement below.
1. What is it advertising?
2. What do you think of it? Does it shock you?
3.
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Do you think it was successful advertising campaign? Why / Why not?
Now read the article below about controversial advertising. Do you think the VW campaign was successful?
SACRILEGE
By Stephen Armstrong
Is Volkswagen bold or stupid? Across France, workmen have been busy scraping off 10,000 billboard advertisements for its new Golf following furious complaints from the Catholic Church. In a series of posters, the German carmaker's model was likened to a religious revelation; one that showed Jesus at the last supper recommending the car to his disciples.
VW's agency DDB Needham doubtless thought its advertising was ironic and extremely up-to-date. After all, the admen presumably figured, if outrageous advertising worked for the likes of Benetton, it could work to revive the image of the Golf, which is frankly rather old-fashioned.
After the Catholic Church threatened to sue for Ffr 3.3 m ($550,000) to obtain reparation for the damage suffered by Christians, the agency and the carmaker confessed to their sins and agreed to remove the ads. 'We have no disrespect for the fundamental values of society nor for the beliefs of the faithful,' said a spokesperson for DDB Needham. 'We decided to retract the posters immediately in order to show our respect for the faith and the feelings expressed by certain believers.' The agency's penance has included making a substantial donation to a Catholic charity.
European consumers are exposed to hundreds of commercial messages a day, but the vast majority of these are ignored, so ads which shock have become more popular with advertisers. It is believed that these ads force consumers to listen to their message. But some adland thinkers argue that it's a little more complicated than that.
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Virginia Valentine, director of advertising's foremost cultural analysis company, Semiotic Solutions, argues that brands can no longer expect consumers to take sales messages at face value. Consumers challenge everything they are told, she believes, and will prefer brands that give them something back, rather than the old-style 'here's our product ain't it great!' philosophy which has dominated advertising since its inception. Thus ads can deal with social issues and refer to the news agenda these days. Inevitably, though, it can go horribly wrong. 'The risk is, and I think this is true in the case of Volkswagen, that if you use images of faith and prostitute them, people will take offence. It's all very well if you give them something back, but it is clear that Jesus could not have benefited from that poster campaign.'
The ad agency, however, may well have done. The VW campaign might look like a marketing disaster, but increasingly ad agencies are selling to clients not simply their ability to write ads but their ability to write ads that generate PR. Some clients ask all agencies pitching for their business to demonstrate their ability to garner extra publicity.
A deliberately shocking ad is the simplest way to get additional media coverage, and even if the media coverage is negative, it can still help to sell the product as advertisers like Benetton have already proved.
One supporter of Benetton's work is Leon Jaume, Deputy Creative Director of ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, who believes its success lies in knowing its target. 'In marketing terms the only real taboo is upsetting the people you want to buy your product,' he says. 'As long as it's legal and the client is OK with, it, you can offend anyone else and in many ways you should. I'd normally see outrageous advertising as a youth proposition though, and I think VW's mistake may have been in selling a product that isn't a youth product with this kind of style. Young people are receptive to taboo-breaking as they are more open-minded than older people. I think they positively welcome advertising that annoys their parents.' Some agency creatives argue that young people today are fundamentally different from previous generations in their internationalism, and young consumers in Tel Aviv are closer to their counterparts in Paris, New York and Sydney than they are to their parents.
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As this generation grows up, the argument goes, they will continue to be more broad-minded than their parents and will see the shattering of taboos as the norm. So outrageous advertising will no longer be limited to those products which target youth.
Perhaps Volkswagen was just ahead of its time, advertising to a market that wasn't broad-minded enough in a country that still gets nervous when Church and State are challenged. Or perhaps VW's collision with Catholics shows that for all their claimed acumen, ad agencies are less in touch with the public mood than they claim.
From The European
Vocabulary
outrageous very shocking
to sue to claim money because you have been harmed
penance suffering to show you are sorry
adland the advertising industry; the imaginary and usually idealized world portrayed in advertisements
to take smth. at a face value to accept smth. without thinking
ain't (colloquial) contracted form of are not, used also for am or is not; also for have not and has not
to garner to collect
a creative a creative worker (artist, writer, poet, etc.)
a counterpart a similar person in a different place
to be ahead of one’s time having ideas, etc too advanced or progressive to be acceptable at the time
acumen the ability to make good judgements
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to be in touch with to understand
Exercise 1. Read the text in more detail and choose the best answer.
1. Which of the following is least likely to be one of the reasons why Volkswagen ran a deliberately provocative campaign?
a) to generate media coverage of the campaign.
b) to shock some members of society.
c) to show their lack of respect for the Catholic Church.
2. Using taboo images in advertising has become popular with advertising executives mainly because
a) they only want to target young people.
b) consumers have stopped paying attention to conventional advertising.
c) products are becoming more international and sophisticated.
3 According to the text, shocking advertising is
a) always damaging for the advertiser.
b) always damaging for the ad agency.
c) the simplest way to get media coverage.
4. According to Leon Jaume, the young generation of consumers like ads
a) with an international flavour.
b) that offend them.
c) that offend their parents.
5. The author of the text suggests that
a) perhaps Volkswagen isn't broad-minded enough.
b) admen are not doing enough market research before running campaigns.
c) Volkswagen wanted to break taboos in France.
Exercise 2. Find words or expressions in the text which correspond to the following definitions.
1. a public space reserved for advertisers to put their ads on (§ 1)
billboard
2. large pictures or notices put up in a public place to advertise something (§ 1)
p_____
3. human interest subjects (§ 5)
s_____ i_____
4. people or companies who pay for a professional service (§ 6)
C_____
5. try to win a business deal (§ 6)
to p_____ f__ b_____
6. time and space given by the media to a particular news item (§ 7)
c_____
7. the person in charge of developing ideas for advertising campaigns (§8)
C_____ D_____
8. a social custom which means a particular activity or subject must be avoided (§ 8)
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t_____
Exercise 3. Complete the following passage about the mineral water company Perrier using the words from the box.
| market purity inspection name fault concern image statement |
In February 1990, Perrier, one of the most famous mineral water companies, faced a serious 1_____ problem when small quantities of benzene were found in some bottles. The company decided to take 160 million bottles, worth $70m, off the 2_____. The spokesperson from the communications department made a 3_____ to the press saying that this did not present a health problem but he did admit that for the product known for 4_____, it was definitely a mistake.
An independent environmental consultant carried out an 5_____ at the Perrier plant and identified and corrected the 6_____. The same consultant said that a person spilling one drop of lead-free petrol on their hand would absorb more benzene than if they drank a bottle of Perrier every day for a year. In this instance Perrier's policy of honesty and its 7_____ for consumers saved its image and good 8_____.
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