新编大学英语第一册unit11TextBAdvertisingTheSellingofaProduc.doc

Advertising: The Selling of a Product 1 A consumer walks into a store. He stands in front of hundreds of boxes of laundry detergent. He chooses one brand, pays for it, and leaves. Why does he pick that specific kind of soap? Is it truly better than the others? Probably not. These days, many products are nearly identical to each other in quality and price. If products are almost the same, what makes consumers buy one brand instead of another? Although we might not like to admit it, commercials on television and advertisements in magazines probably influence us much more than we think they do. 2 Advertising informs consumers about new products available on the market. It gives us information about everything from shampoo to toothpaste to computers and cars. But there is one serious problem with this. The information is actually very often misinformation. It tells us the products benefits but hides their disadvantages. Advertising not only leads us to buy things that we dont need and cant afford, but it also confuses our sense of reality. Zoom toothpaste prevents cavities and gives you white teeth! the advertisement tells us. But it doesnt tell us the complete truth: that a healthy diet and a good toothbrush will have the same effect. 3 Advertisers use many methods to get us to buy their products. One of their most successful methods is to make us feel dissatisfied with ourselves and our imperfect lives. Advertisements show us who we are not and what we do not have. Our teeth arent white enough. Our hair isnt shiny enough. Our clothes arent clean enough. Advertisements make us afraid that people wont like us if we dont use the advertised products. Why dont I have any dates? a good-looking girl sadly asks in a commercial. Here, replies her roommate, try Zoom toothpaste! Of course she tries it, and immediately the whole football team falls in love with her. Thats a stupid commercial, we might say. But we still buy Zoom toothpaste out of fear of being unpopular and having