[00:00.00] UNIT 6
[00:03.68]Do You Follow Ads?
[00:08.23]Integrated Skills Development
[00:14.47]Passage
[00:19.33]The Power of Persuasion
[00:24.61]Advertising follows us everywhere.
[00:31.87]Whenever we turn on the television,
[00:36.31]listen to the radio or open a newspaper or magazine,
[00:41.74]we are bombarded with advertisements.
[00:46.58]They invite us to try a new type of orange juice,
[00:52.01]wear X-brand jeans or watch the latest film.
[00:58.07]They beg us to notice the difference and discover the advantages.
[01:04.84]They exist to make us want what they are selling.
[01:10.58]Strangely,
[01:14.95]the more we are exposed to advertising the less we notice it.
[01:21.29]We get to used to seeing advertisements everywhere
[01:26.47]that they become largely invisible,
[01:30.91]as if they were another part of our everyday lives.
[01:37.07]But does that mean that we are no longer affected by them?
[01:43.24]One advertising expert
[01:49.01]believes that the special power of advertising
[01:54.16]lies in the fact that we do not pay much attention to it.
[02:00.19]Dr. Herbert Krugman,
[02:05.15]who was head of research for a major advertising company for many years,
[02:11.92]says that the less we notice ads,
[02:16.96]the more we are affected by them.
[02:21.32]Dr. Krugman believes that when we stop noticing advertisements,
[02:29.26]we lower our defenses,
[02:33.63]allowing the messages of the advertisements to be taken in and stored,
[02:41.18]ready to be triggered into action at the right moment.
[02:46.84]He says that the effects of advertising on the individual are small,
[02:53.90]but over a period of time they have a powerful effect on the masses.
[03:01.26]Advertising serves an important function in society.
[03:07.92]Selling goods is an essential part of any economy.
[03:13.88]Advertisements help to sell goods by informing people
[03:20.12]about the products and services availale.
[03:25.27]They supply us with information about new goods
[03:31.02]and developments that may be useful to us.
[03:36.06]Often, advertisements help to pay for the entertainment we enjoy.
[03:44.24]Sponsors, who support events in exchange for advertising exposure,
[03:51.08]help to lower the cost of concerts,
[03:55.83]sports events and festivals.
[04:00.40]But most experts
[04:04.85]who study advertising and its influence on human behavior argue that,
[04:11.51]more than being a source of information,
[04:16.18]advertising exists to persuade.
[04:21.33]It sells products and services by turning them into images and dreams.
[04:29.19]To do so,
[04:32.46]it may not always tell us everything
[04:36.90]about the products we are being persuaded to buy.
[04:42.17]A market analyst says that all advertising,
[04:48.13]no matter how innocent,
[04:52.18]is mis-leading in some way.
[04:56.33]When asked about the power of advertising in research surveys,
[05:03.60]most people agree that it works, but not to them.
[05:09.26]Almost everyone believes that they have complete control
[05:15.61]over how the thousands of ads they see every day affect them.
[05:22.27]Only the professionals who create the ads know differently.
[05:29.35]After all,
[05:32.41]they see the results and they know advertising works as they expect.
[05:39.25]It works without us being aware of it.
[05:44.22]It works not by brainwashing us overnight.
[05:49.54]but by slowly and carefully shaping the way we think — and buy.
