Talking point: Advertising

Today's talking point is advertising. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below, so that you can prepare the answers beforehand and you're not at a loss for ideas when you meet your friends. It can also help you deal with vocabulary issues.

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of advertising?
• What is your favourite advert?
• What adverts do you dislike?
• Where do you come across adverts (any kind of adverts) these days?
• ( or What different advertising methods can you think of?)
• What types of products are usually advertised? 
• Are there any advertising practices unacceptable (using children in ads, nudity, advertising alcohol or tobacco, comparing your products to your competitors products)?
• Have you ever bought anything after seeing the ad?
• Are there any particular brands that well-known for the high quality of their ads?

 To illustrate the topic, watch the two adverts below and analyse them according to these criteria:

1. Product
2. Target Audience.
3. The Content or Message
4. The Hook. How they get the audience’s attention.
5. Effectiveness

Oh I love Italy! I had an Italian boyfriend once – his mother broke up with me.
How did I know it was a lie? I read it in your newspaper.
Well, a girl has to have a private life. It keeps the public interested.
Music inspired me, art inspires me, but so does the wind.
Yes, I can really sing. But you’ll have to pay me first.
Ah my favorite part of my body? I like my lips for kissing and for words that start with the letter ‘M’.
Foam slows down time, but a moment can last forever.
I do all of my own stunts, even the love making.
Oh, I’ve played a physicists, a nanny, a surgeon, an actress, a canibal, and a spy.
An actress is the hardest 'cause you never know who you are.
I’m not an actress, I just play one in the movies.
Yes, I can cry on cue, but the third take that’s for real.
The smell of sunshine is the best. You know what I mean.
I’m not looking for a million things, just that one perfect thing, love.
That’s the one.

Sony - Two Worlds (Director's Cut) from Spy Films on Vimeo.

That's What I Heard You Say

Don’t matter if the road is long

Don’t matter if it’s steep

Don’t matter if the page is gone

It’s written that we’ll meet.

I loved you when you opened

Like a lily to the heat

And I love you when it closes

A thousand kisses deep

I know you had to lie to me

I know you had to cheat

You learned it on your father’s knee

And at your mother’s feet.

But did you have to fight your way

Across the burning street

Where all our vital interests lay

A thousand kisses deep

Leonard Cohen