Ad Sample2

 

5. Disscussing Adve ertisem ments 

 

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INT TRODUCT TION:

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

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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.

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• 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.

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• 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 fully and veriffying it later iin different w ways.]

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W is the ad about? 1. What 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.

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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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