5.

 Disscussing Adve
ertisem
ments 
 

• INT TION:
TRODUCT

Fancy eating a mouth-wat

m tering Caddbury Dairy Milk chocolate
c or drinkinng a
sizzlingg Coca Colla? The saiid advertissements suurely invitee you to taake a bite at,
a at
least, onne choc-baar or gulp down
d cupfuul chilled beverage,
b d
don’t they??

This is one instance. There are

a thousaands of such instancces being experience
e d by
us in the
t electro
onic and print meddia on a daily bassis, makinng ads neearly
omnipreesent in hu
uman life.

Advertiisements arre undoubttedly as akkin to our existence

e a is our own skin too our
as
bodies; and witho
out them, the mediaa world woould remaiin bleak and
a bland. Just
imaginee our life without
w advvertisemennts. The advvertisemennts in electrronic and print
p
media enable
e theiir prospecttive custom
mers to havve requisitte informattion of varrious
productts and to exercise
e their choicess in favourr of the prroducts addvertised. You
need too understan
nd it as a corporatee policy of
o customeer persuasion via media
m

1 
 
marketiing. This smart
s policcy has paidd the concerned prodduct manufacturing units
u
immensse benefits running inn billions of
o dollars!

The ad informatio
on is somettimes comiically exagggerative as
a in the caase of Tataa Tea
ad that used to be
b telecastted a few years agoo [after driinking hott Tata tea,, the
smiling female model
m suddeenly starts flying_ peerhaps the symbolic representaation
of the resultant
r hu
uman ecstaasy or hilaarity] or inn the Glucoose-D ad showing
s a boy
getting instant eneergy soon after
a drinkiing glassfuul glucose water.
w

Now-a-days, man
ny ads are pretty coool and moore sophistticated, eyee-catching and
strident: Shah Ruk
kh Khan’ss ‘Thanda Thanda, Cool
C Cool’ Dermi Coool ad or Pepsi
P
or Thum
mps Up blaares featureed by the Indian
I playyers like Saachin Tenddular or Inndian
Bollywoood actors like Salmaan Khan arre notable examples.

Significcant to notiice is the fact

f that soome ads arre simply misleading
m g: they prom
mise
so manny things but
b the prooducts, theey show, actually offer
o far tooo little too the

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prospective customers. That’s why, we, the customers, need to seek adequate
information about the authenticity of certain claims made by various product ads as
well as verify their veracity by means of logical enquiry. Sometimes, you’d not get
certain vital and authentic information about the claims from even the internet due
to its various limitations. It is possible to get it only when you come across some
people who know quite well about the products, since they have used them and
come across their benefits and disadvantages, the services offered and certain
losses or shortcomings these products have.

Do you think that it’s fair and useful to brush aside the information some people
give about the products, they use, on the pretext of the ‘colouring’, you sometimes
notice, in their talk? You need to understand that most of the talk you get about
anything under the sky is coloured by opinions, view-points, prejudices, emotional
states of the speaker’s mind during the talk and so on. But it’s equally necessary
for you to remember that hearing the talk forms the baseline of your enquiry of the
information you’ve got. This certainly gives rise to your interactions with different
people and getting some secondhand information of their experiences about the
various products they’ve used. The ‘picture’ of the reality associated with your
enquiry becomes almost clear when you ask information-seeking questions in a
sensible fashion, take into consideration multiple perspectives, emanating from
different people and, at last, compare these perspectives in your deliberate and
objective contemplation. This forms the crux of your multifaceted learning
approach towards the ad information you’re continually bombarded with on a
day-to-day basis.

3 
 
• Watching and Listening :>  
Watch and listen carefully the audio‐visual file of a group discussion on one 
advertisement. It will give you an idea about how to discuss in groups. While 
listening, observe carefully the following things: 
 
1. The content, 

2. The language used, 

3. Certain unknown or difficult‐to‐understand words, 

4. Body language_ facial gestures, hand movements and postures. 

5. The style of content delivery. 

6. Coordination among the participants, 

7. Faults or drawbacks in the overall discussion (if any) 

• REMEMBER: 
It’s necessary listen to what others say since listening forms an initial step
towards learning and effective listening means effective material at your
disposal for peer learning-teaching via group discussion. While listening to
the audio-video file, note down important points on one of the blank pages
in your brain in order to organize various ideas associated with your
discussion.

4 
 
• PEEER DISCCUSSIO
ON OF ADS:

 DISCUSSSION SESSSION: 

Make a group of
o 4 or 5 members and discu
uss the foollowing advertisem
a ment.
This acctivity includes:

1. Observationn of the ad,

2. Reading the information carefully,
c
3. Making a notte of vital points,
4. Make a tree-diagram or table
t or numbber series of those
t points.
5. Discuss each point elaborately with thhe help of the questions following the add picture.
6. You can form
m additional questions
q as the
t part of yoour enquiry abbout the givenn advertisemeent.

[Note: The 
T advertiseement  includ
des  a  picture  and  certain  product  info
ormation  whiich  to  read  iss  very 
important. Reading su
uch informattion while bu
uying productts makes you
u a sensible ccustomer_ thee one 

who is aw
ware of the beenefits of rea
ading it carefu ways.]
fully and veriffying it later iin different w

5 
 
 1. What
W is the ad about?
2. Which
W inforrmation dooes the scriipt give to you?
3. Discuss
D abo
out the infoormation.
4. Discuss
D thee script stylle and coloours [as weell as colouur designs] used.

6 
 
 5. The rectangle at left hand lower side of the wrapper contains multiple black
bars of the same height and different width with the number written below it.
What’s it? Discuss.

[If all the participants know nothing about the bars, they should seek the
information about it from the retail market they visit for shopping.]

6. Exercise:
The ad picture also has one toll free phone number and one e-mail id. Two
of the participants can dial the given phone number to seek additional
information and the rest can e-mail for the same. You can do so the similar
activity_ but the participants, now, changing their tasks_ by reading the label
information of the products you’ve bought.

7. Also make a list of and discuss about various ads_ the information they give,
the entertainment they provide, the characters in them and their style of
presentation, the backgrounds used in them and the effects these ads produce
on each of you.

8. Make a small project of your activity and discuss it with your friend as well
as your teacher.

9. Cross check your project before submitting to your teacher or mentor or

guide for feedback and guidance.

10. You can do the similar activities by observing the wrappers of other
products you buy in the nearby market.

 
 

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