5A Hard sell

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Activity 1Ice breaker activity:
Find someone who


Advertising is an art that requires practice, cultural awareness and knowing your target audience.

Topics: advertising, commercials, target audience, hard sell, soft sell, presentations, cold calling, and market research.


                                       

ACTIVITY

Take a look at the advertisements and answer the following questions:

• What are they advertising?
• In what way are they trying to make the product appealing?
• Does it make you want to buy it / use it / travel there / invest in it?
• Why or why not?
• Do you consider the advertisements to be effective?

a)

b) 

c)

d) 

e) 

PAIR or GROUP DISCUSSION

Making use of the sentences to express opinions and to agree and disagree  available in the link (Giving opinions, agreeing and disagreeing) discuss what you think about these questions:

• 
  
• 'Advertising = lying' - true or false?
• Is there too much advertising in the world today?
• Are you affected by advertising?
• Were you more affected by advertising when you were young?
• Have you recently bought anything as a result of an ad you've seen?
• What kind of ads do you like?
• Are there advertisements that you hate? If so, why?
• Are 'bad' advertisements sometimes effective? (eg Do you sometimes really hate an ad very much, but you can't help humming the tune?

   

HOMEWORK

Which of the two following television commercials do you like the most and why?

a)
    

b) 

Here is a commercial that became so famous that it ended up having merchandising:

Now take a look at the following commercial and questions:

1. When would you see this ad?
2. Who is it for?

a) 

b) 

Advertising to children

1. What do you think about advertisements shown during children's programs (for sweets, toys, food products, etc.)?
2. Should companies be allowed to advertise to children?
3. Is it OK for companies to advertise in schools?

                                 

CULTURAL NOTE

HARD SELL VS SOFT SELL

Hard sell is when a company tries to sell their product in  very aggressive or persuasive ways, usually doing more thatn just putting advertisements in magazines or on TV. 

Soft sell is a gentle way of persuading someone to buy a product.

ETHICAL ADVERTISING?

Some people campaign for more ethical advertising, ie vased on beliefs about what is right and wrong. 

Campaigners believe, for example, that it is unethical to encourage children to eat high-fat, unhealthy foods. Supermarkets and food manufacturers are under increasing pressure to offer healthier products, especially as people become more aware of the problem of obesity in children. a long-running ethical campaign has been about the selling of powdered baby milk in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, etc. Campaigners believe that it is wrong to aggressively market this and discourage women from naturally breatfeeding their children.

                                        

MAKING A PRESENTATION

Click on the following link to obtain tips about presentations:

Making a presentation