Today's lesson will deal with advertisements and promoting language, and you will get to do a sales-pitch in groups and reflect on how we react to ads and commercials.
First of all, take a look at this ad from the Shopping Channel and discuss the following:
1. What part of the advertisement offer facts about the leg machine?
2. What parts are trying to persuade the reader to buy a leg machine?
3. What methods are used?
4. Who do you think are the target audience?
Look at this info on advertising language and this to see what is typical of it and reflect on how much you saw of that kind of language in the ad.
Then, move on to...
...The Sales-Pitch!
Write a script for the Shopping Channel/radio broadcast commercial in which you advertise for another exercise machine. Make use of persuasive language (choice of words and metaphors etc). Use a selling tone - the smile in the voice! ;)
Choose from the following suggestions:
* Randall's Rowing Machine
* Sam's Step-Aerobic Machine
* Tony's Treadmill for Walkers and Joggers
Or invent your own health-promoting machine! You will get to perform infront of two other groups.
Have fun!
I would also like to read your thoughts on the language of ads/commercials, if you ever reflect on it, to what extent you feel that you are being affected positively or negatively. Are there any ads you like more than others? If so, then why?
Again, thanks for today's lesson! I would love to see the commercials for all of your products - can you picture them??! =D=D
SvaraRaderaI do not reflect over the language on ads/commercials. I hate Tv-shop, the programe which comes on from time to time. I think it is because I do not believe in miracle products and I hate it when they repeat and repeat the samething over and over again. So tv-shop ads are not for me and do affect me in a very negative way. I also do not like surreptitious advertising in movies when it is too obvious or too much of it. I just think it is silly. Then again there are ads like the carlsberg commercials which i like but it is because of the humor. I also like strange commercials which have no meaning at all. hehe. I think humor is the way to go! I guess I also like the coca-cola commercial at christmas with santa because i have kind of grown up with it.
SvaraRaderaThe language is often quite simple, with few complicated words (except when they want to make something look complicated, like technical products). I think that ads that evoke some sort of feeling (happiness, irritation) are the ones that are the most successful. Personally, I prefer ads with some humor in them. If a commercial gives you a good laugh, it feels as if you have got something in return for their attempt to manipulate you to buy the product. Although I rarely like them, some commercials are on purpose made to be so bad and boring that I cannot help remembering what they advertised. Thus, they probably work very well, which is annoying. Commercial breaks do enough damage simply by interrupting TV-programs, so they could at least be fun to watch.
SvaraRadera/Henrik
First of all I believe that all ads and commercials of course want their audience to get a positive view of their product. And to achieve that they always seem use the finest words they can find to define their product. They seem to stretch the truth as far as possible to make the viewers believe that they just have to buy the product, which of course is not always so pleasant. I hate it when you get tricked by the company, because you expected so much more than what you really got, just because of their outstanding words in the ad. But there is also commercials that go against that attitude and choose a very relaxed and “down-to-earth” feeling about it all and say things like “nothing remarkable about this product, it is simply pure juice” for example, and I must say although I don’t like commercials at all, I really prefer those ones who don’t brag about their product.
SvaraRadera/Sofia
I think commercial is very interesting, not to look at, but to think about. We are all used to it and we see it every day. For that reason, I find it very strange that people still go for the tricks that are being used. It's funny how something like TV-shop can actually work, you would think that consumers realize that the entire commercial is photoshopped and fake, but in some way we still buy the products. Maybe it's because we know it's too good to be true, but we still want to see, maybe it will work...
SvaraRaderaI think commercial, and companies, are much more appreciated if it is funny and not like the TV-shop commercial, or Siba with the annoying Fabian... I think commercial like the type that ICA, Carlsberg or Comhem with Judith&Judith does, is much more appreciated.
You would think that a company or a brand would want to be remembered for their good commercial, and not being remembered because their commercial is so annoying that you can't get it out of your head. But I guess the most important thing is to be rememberd at all, and being annoying seems to work. But like Henrik wrote, commercial breaks could at least be a little fun, since they are always ruining the TV-programs.
/Charlotte
I don't think commercials have any influence on me at all, because when I was younger my mom and dad bought some things that looked great in the ads and then turned out to be... crap! So I think that whenever an ad comes up on the TV I just think that it's crap and then I don't pay attention to a single word they're saying. I know that there's one ad that I always laugh at. It's like this bra that looks like a sportsbra and then it gives you this "perfect lift". There are two women pulling it and stretching it out while saying "I'm pulling, I'm pulling!" and it sounds like they're gonna deliver a baby...which to me is so humorous. But I don't think I think about commercials, when they appear, all that much. I just watch and find them silly! :)
SvaraRaderaI don’t watch or read ads very often, because I think they are pretty silly. But when I do I actually think a lot about the language, because there are always loopholes in the ads. The marketing business is always trying to trick people to buy the product and they also happen to succeed at it, because if they weren’t products wouldn’t be sold. But I think these commercials affect people in different ways, to me the commercials just give me a laugh in the mornings. But at the same time you think they are silly, you remember them and who knows maybe you buy that candy bar in the store just for the reason that you heard that commercial a week ago on the telly.
SvaraRaderaA lot of expressions actually come from ads, so I think we are all being affected even though all of us are not watching the commercial.
/Annie