127: Advertising

Questions about the Video File:

1. What are people who go shopping mainly in search of?
2. What do usually people think about the influence of advertising on them and the others?
3. What do we prefer to believe about ourselves as customers in regard to advertisements?
4. How do companies want us to feel?
5. How does he compare advertising to military trainings?

General Questions:

1. What are the good elements of a successful advertisement?
2. To what extent can advertisements change people's taste? Can you provide examples to support your idea?
3. To what extend do you trust advertisements? Do you ever search to verify their information?
4. What's the best advertisement you've ever seen? What made it so?
5. What's the most shocking advertisement ever?
6. Do you agree that advertisement for children should be banned in children's TV programs?
7. Do you think advertising is more of an art or a science?
8. What products shouldn't be allowed to be advertised?
9. Should the content of advertisements be examined by authorities? Who must be in charge?

Related idioms or expressions:

Give someone or something the benefit of the doubt: to imagine that something good and positive is possible about a given situation rather than something bad and negative

• Please, give her the benefit of the doubt when you are reviewing her criminal records.

Scratch the surface/scratch beneath the surface: to look into a matter at deeper levels rather than what is obvious

• Undoubtedly, going to university is a good idea. However, if you scratch beneath the surface, you will see it’s not good for everyone.

Related Quotes:

•  “The only people who care about advertising are the people who work in advertising.” George Parker
• "Facts are irrelevant. What matters is what the consumer believes." Seth Godin
• “if advertising had a little more respect for the public, the public would have a lot more respect for advertising”  James Randolph Adam
   

Related Words and Phrases:

horde (n) a large group of people often moving around making lots of noise

• There are hordes of teenagers in the malls on weekends.

scrutinize (v) to look into something or someone carefully.

• As a detective it was his main job to scrutinize all the evidences to prove their authenticity.

bombard (v) if you are bombarded with something like questions or information, it is too much to handle

• The newly elected president was bombarded by questions from media.

impact (n/v): influence; effect

• The advertisement will impact younger people sooner or later.

Will power (n) the ability to make a decision and stick to it

• Strong willpower is surely required to make substantial changes in one’s life.

Fend off (ph v): to protect yourself against something or someone.

• Children can’t fend off against temptation of unhealthy but delicious food.

Consumer (n) a person who pays for a product and uses it

• The societies in the 21^st century are considered the biggest consumer society ever.

Nurture (v): to develop an idea, belief or plan

• The authorities seem to play a big role in nurturing racism in a few societies.

actualize (v) to make something real

• You are the only person who can actualizes your dreams.

existential (adj) connected to the existence of human being

• Thinking about existential issues is quiet common among people in their 20s.

miserable (adj) feeling unhappy

• When her father passed away she felt miserable for a while.

Thrive (v) to grow or develop on something

• She really thrived on her family’s happiness.

Side effect (n) the negative effect of something in addition to the main effect

• The unintended side effects of chemotherapy are inevitable

Fatigue (n) extreme tiredness

• Working double shifts brought her mental and physical fatigue after a short while.

Perky (adj) happy and energetic

• Nothing is more effective than the image of perky students to advertise a university

Benevolent (adj) nice and generous

• She seemed benevolent when she offered to help the charity with a considerable amount of money.

Related Collocations

A better version of yourself: if you become a better version of yourself you have improved yourself and changed for better

• She read a dozens of self-help books in search of a better version of herself.

Overly influenced:  greatly influenced

• It was a good movie but I felt it was overly influenced by the works of Hitchcock.

Mental capacity: the ability to think and make wise decisions

• She was believed to have under developed mental capacity in compare with other children of her age, she seemed noticeably slower.

Underlying message: hidden message; a message which might not be obvious at first

• When she smiled, they could see that she was sending an underlying message that she was fine with the changes.