Lesson 25

Do Advertisements Play a Positive or

Negative Role in Our Society?

Text

People Change Their Attitudes towards Ads

One night, when television began broadcasting a boring TV show, I said to my wife, "The programme is even less interesting than the advertisements, or commercials. Let us have a change.

My wife, who happened to have a remote control in her hand, consented immediately, switched to another channel and enjoyed an advertisement of riee flour with me. Just at the moment, I found that we were no longer as disgusted with the commercials as we had been before.

The next day when I told my experience to my colleagues, they, to my surprise, all had the same feeling. A few even sang several of the commercials songs.

A few years ago, when advertisements began to appear in the Chinese media, most people, including myself, were against the practice. Some sighed: "The socialist TV, newspapers have started imitating the Western bourgeois media too!"

What has changed the audience's mentality in only several years' time?

First, Chinese advertisements have improved their advertising techniques. At the beginning, the language of advertisements was simple, the music insipid and the images coarse and crude. Later, some better foreign advertisements came to Chinese TV and newspapers.

"Where there is a mountain, there is a road; where there is a road, there is a Toyota." The words of the Japanese advertisement publicizing the Toyota car are very absurd but impressive and easy to memorize. " Nestle coffee is tasty indeed." The American advertisement promoting the sale of the Nestle brand coffee has become a new household phrase in China.

Gradually, Chinese advertisements also have learned how to dress themselves up. They have strange and humorous associations, charming, deep male voices, colourful images and songs that are pleasing to the ear and easy to learn.s For these reasons, the commercials for Santana cars, Fud colour film and Orient beverages have successfully attracted a TV audience.

Second, life needs advertisements. Everything in modern society is linked to information, while the main function of advertisements is to disseminate information on commodities, service, culture, employment, student enrollment and even marriage.

Of course, one can obtain such information by listening to hearsay and making on- the-spot investigation, but the information provided by advertisements in doubtless the most direct, comprehensive and detailed.

As society advances, people's demands have become more and mone diversified, and the commodities and service provided by society have also become more and more diversified.

On the other hand, as living tempo quickens, people have less leisure time. If they want to spend time finding suitable commodities, service and employment opportunities, they have to rely on advertisements. So, unconsciously, people

have changed their hatred for advertisements to an acceptance and utilization of them.

But, due to certain conditions in China, the Chinese do not have a great need for advertisements for the time being. That is because Chinese economy is not highly developed,and the supply of many commodities falls short of consumers' demands. So the more consumers see the advertisements, the angrier they become.

Second, people's living pace has not quickened to the extent that they have no time to go shopping leisurely. Many can even find time to walk the streets during their work hours. There is no need for them to read "the shopping directory".

There are even fewer people depending on advertisements to seek employment, for there is not much flow of the labour force.

Earlier this year, I discovered that the annual business volume of a US advertising corporation was as high as $ 6 billion, more than 12 per cent of that of China's exports last year. I was really taken aback to find that an advertisement corporation-had developed to such an extent.

It is said that advertising is indispensable to the lives of people in developed countries. Without exception, people read advertisements before going shopping or looking for jobs. It is against this social background that advertising has developed

so much in these countries.

An idea comes to me: As the economy develops, advertisements may finally penetrate every corner of our life. The day will come when all Chinese will realize that advertising is essential to all of us.

II . Read

Read the following passages. Underline the important viewpoints while reading.

1. The Function of Advertisement

Robert: We're having a debate on advertising tomorrow and I have to take part.

Mr.Lee: That's interesting. I should like to hear

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