THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING WORKSHEET 1:

A answer the following questions:

1 What do you think of the advert?
2 How would you compare the adverts shown?. Which do you think is the most effective now?
3 Which do you think would have been most effective in its own time?
4 How many adverts is the average person likely to see in a day?

B. HOW ADS WORK. Then answer the following questions:

1 Generally speaking, who makes the adverts we see on television and in newspapers?
2 To advertising people, what's meant by the 'brief'?
3 Who are the 'creatives'?
4 What is a storyboard? What is it used for?
5 What does the print and production department do?
6 Who places the ad on TV or in a publication?

C. THE VIEWER'S VIEW. Then answer the following questions:

1 In an advert, what is the 'proposition'?
2 What tended to be the approach of the early TV ads?
3 What's meant by 'stereotypes'?
4 What techniques have become increasingly popular, as advertising has developed?
5 How do advertisers use the power of association?
6 How does the approach of the modern advertiser tend to differ from that of the advertiser of the past?

D. answer the following questions:

1 What impression has this advert made on you?
2 Would it make you feel like buying Oxo or eating Oxo?
3 What do you feel about the role of the woman in the advert?
4 What do you feel about the role of the father in the advert?
5 How is the set important in the advert?
6 Do you think this advert would be effective if shown today?

E. answer the following questions:

1 In what way is the Oxo family presented as an ideal?
2 In what way is Katie a 'slave'?
4 What impression do you think working mothers would have of the Katie character?
5 In what way does the Oxo family seem unrealistic now?

H. answer the following questions:

1 How do you feel about the role of the man in the advert?
2 How do you feel about the role of the children in the advert?
3 How would you compare the couples in the Oxo advert?
4 How important is the use of accents in the advert?
5 What does the advert tell us, if anything, about the period in which it was produced?

I answer the following questions:

1 How has the advertising industry's attitude to women changed? How is this reflected in the ads
studied and any you know?

L answer the following questions:

1 What are the special problems faced by printed adverts?
2 What's the main difference between the way advertising agencies approach the making of a print
advert and a television advert.
4 Which of the adverts we have looked at do you feel is the most successful? Why?
5 Which of the adverts we have looked at do you feel is the least successful? Why?

M answer the following questions:

1 Is an advert a work of art?
2 What can adverts achieve?
3 What does the advertising professional want to do with an advert, apart from serving the client?
4 Why do anti-capitalist campaigners attack advertising?
5 What's your impression of the 'anti-ad'? Is it as effective as an ordinary ad?
6 What makes an advert 'sexist'?
7 What's the single biggest criticism of advertising?
N. Then answer the following questions:
1 What are the most noticeable stereotypes which appear in these adverts?
2 How does the use of stereotypes differ in the different adverts?
3 How do the different adverts make use of the powers of association?
4 Which adverts make use of humour?
5 The adverts are both selling products. How do their advertising approaches differ?
6 Which of the adverts do you think is the most effective?
7 Has your view of advertising changed?

WORKSHEET 2: GENERAL QUESTIONS

1 Oxo is a classic early TV ad. What is its strengths?
2 What are the main differences between its approach and that of the newer oxo ad shown immediately
after it? How would you account for these differences?
3 How are adverts produced? What are the key stages?
4 Can you see any problems in this method for producing adverts?
5 How do the adverts work on the audience?
6 What are stereotypes and how has their use changed over the years? Has it changed?
7 How has the approach of advertisers changed over the years?
8 What's meant by the power of association? Why are advertisers making more use of this approach
than direct selling?
9 What do you think of the old Oxo adverts? How effective do you think it would be if shown today?
10 How successful do you feel the 'Oxo' ads are?
11 How would you compare the role of the woman in the 'Katie' ad and the woman in the newer 'Oxo'
ad?
12 Why should sex be used to sell products?
13 How would you compare Katie with the woman in the Ercol adevrts? Are there historical reasons for
the differences between them?
14 How important is the use of accents in adverts?
15 Who are the adverts aimed at?
16 Why are advertisers setting out to shock or embarrass viewers?
17 Why is it hard to produce a successful print ad these days?
18 What are the things you don't have when making a print ad that you do have when making a
television ad?
21 Which of the print ads studied do you feel are particularly imaginative?
22 What makes a successful print ad?
23 How far is it possible to consider an advert a work of art?
24 To what extent do the advertising professionals consider themselves artists?
25 Why do some people attack advertising?
26 What was the message of the 'anti-ad'? How well was it put across?
27 What is a sexist advert? Are many adverts sexist?
28 What would be your single biggest criticism of advertising?
29 How do the adverts differ in their use of stereotypes?
30 How do the adverts differ generally in their approach? In what way do they use the 'power of
association'?

WORKSHEET 3: DISCUSSION TOPICS

1 "Each day the average person is likely to see over one thousand five hundred adverts." What does this
do to the average person?
2 If the amount the US spends on advertising could abolish starvation in the world, why doesn't the US
stop advertising and abolish starvation?
3 Is it possible to understand the world without using stereotypes?
4 Are the stereotypes of the past really more crude and obvious than those of the present? Or do they
just seem a bit old-fashioned?
5 "Advertisers still use stereotypes, but in a more knowing way." What does this mean?
6 Some adverts do seem funny - but doesn't the joke wear off after the umpteenth viewing? Do adverts
make you laugh?
7 "Music and images are often now more important in an advert than any spoken or written words."
Why?
8 Why should adverts which operate at a subconscious level be more effective than ones which just ask
you to buy?
9 "They're an ideal as a family ... The audience may not live a life like that, real life's a lot more
stressful, but that's what they're thought to aspire to." Why should this help Oxo flog more cubes?
10 "These days you don't find many families like that." Do you agree? Does this necessarily make the ad
less effective?
11 "It's just sex, isn't it?" How true or fair is this comment on its use in ads?
12 "About that time women became an important target... not as a mother but as an income earner..."
How much have developments like this shaped the advertising we see?
13 What have you noticed about the way accents are used in adverts?
14 "But it is a bit shocking seeing a load of people taking off their tops. It's probably more shocking for
older people, but that's a good thing." Why should it be a good thing?
15 "We're living in a real Fast Show TV culture, where people are really looking for those quick hits. I
don't think people make the time to read a full page copy ad." Does this have implications for all forms
of written material, not just adverts?
16 "With TV and radio you have room for narrative. You can tell a complex story. With print, you've got
to distil it down ... It's a great art." But don't print ads have some advantages, too?
17 Do you ever read print ads? What print advert can you remember? How did it make itself
memorable?
18 "I'm sure the church gave Michelangelo a little more leeway than clients give their agencies." How
true is this? How much does business resemble the church in its patronage of creativity for promotional
purposes?
19 "If there's any comparison between some ads and art, it's in terms of tapping into deep human truths
and not a lot of ads do that. But it's why some ads, are a bit timeless...". Fair comment?
20 "A lot of advertising is a total waste of space, but there's always an opportunity there to make people
think, to let them see the world differently." Do you believe any adverts let you see the world
differently?
21 "If we wanted to be poets or film makers, that's what we'd be doing. We're happy to serve our clients
and their needs as long as we can get something of ourselves in there too." What of themselves are the
ad people trying to get into their ads? Are they just kidding themselves?
22 "If you didn't see it, you wouldn't buy it - so it does make you spend money." Is this the worse thing
about advertising? Why can't people resist adverts?
23 Why are women's bodies used to sell so many products of so many different kinds?
24 "Adverts just give a glossy face to a dangerous, destructive, exploitative consumer culture. For this
reason, adverts are helping to degrade and destroy the world." What do you think?
25 What's the best advert you've ever seen?
26 Can adverts be used for good causes?