The role of advertising in society today - Test 1

C1 Advanced · Cross Text Multiple Matching · Cambridge English Advanced 1, Cambridge University Press

You are going to read four contributions to an online debate about advertising. For questions 1–4, choose from the contributions A-D. The contributions may be chosen more than once.

Almost all public spaces nowadays have advertisements in sight, and all forms of media, from newspapers to the cinema to the Internet, are filled with adverts. This all-pervasive presence reflects the value of advertising to us. Without it, businesses of all types and sizes would struggle to inform potential customers about the products or services they provide, and consumers would be unable to make informed assessments when looking for products to buy and services to use. Without advertising, the promotion of products and practices that contribute to our physical and psychological well-being – medicines to treat minor ailments, insurance schemes to protect us, clothes and cosmetics to make us look and feel better – would be infinitely more problematic than it is. And without advertisements and the aspirations represented in them, the world would be a far duller place.

Advertising is everywhere, and it's often so subtle that we don't realise it's there at some level of our consciousness. The ultimate aim, of course, is to get us to buy things, regardless of whether it makes sense for us to do so. In fact, adverts mostly impair rational decision-making. A recent study in the UK found that 90% of customers failed to understand the truth about what was on offer in adverts for broadband internet services. This irrational dimension is evident in the success advertisers enjoy not only in getting us to buy products that, directly or indirectly, cause physical damage to us, but also in raising our expectations about what our lives should be like – expectations that inevitably imply something is wrong with us if we don't meet them. Having said this, advertising is fundamental to the workings of modern economies, so the chances are that it will only continue to grow in significance.

There is a tendency to underestimate people's intelligence and to invest advertising with powers it doesn't have. Certain dubious techniques have been banned – like the use of subliminal images shown so quickly that viewers don't consciously realise they've seen them – but other forms of advertising are simply manifestations of creativity. Audiences understand this and are able to enjoy adverts without falling prey to some complex deception. They know that an advert tells them a product exists and suggests they might benefit from having it. They don't expect it to provide objective details, confirming why they should or should not go ahead with a purchase. They are also smart enough to know that what they see in advertisements is fiction and, therefore, not something they should feel bad about if they don't have it. The bottom line, however, is that advertising helps the wheels of the economy to turn, a crucial role which societies are likely to depend on for the foreseeable future.

Advertising is a worldwide, multi-billion dollar industry and inevitably tends to favour large businesses, which can afford advertising costs, rather than smaller companies, which can't. In that way, it makes life ever more difficult for that sector of the economy – small and medium-sized businesses – which is the key to a nation's prosperity. Advertising also encourages certain patterns of consumption – fast food, cars, labour-saving devices and so on – which characterise a sedentary lifestyle and undermine physical well-being, while also generating a sense of inadequacy and unhappiness among people who feel inferior if they don't possess a product or conform to certain ideas of what is 'beautiful' or 'cool'. And far from providing consumers with clear, reliable information enabling them to make sensible decisions about what to spend their money on, advertisers use underhand methods to confuse and manipulate feelings and thoughts.

Which contributor expresses a different view from the others about the impact that advertising has on a country's economy?

Which contributor has a different opinion from the others on the extent to which advertising helps people to make choices?

Which contributor takes a similar view to contributor D about the influence advertising can have on people's self-esteem?

Which contributor expresses a different opinion from contributor B regarding public awareness of how advertising works?

The role of advertising in society today

Available as a free printable PDF worksheet with an optional answer key.

More C1 Advanced Cross-Text Multiple Matching practice · All C1 Advanced practice