CHAPTER 9: Marketing and Advertising 2 Listening Practice B Listening for Main

Ideas (p. 74)

A: Time now to look at our mailbox for some of the reactions to last week’s show.
B: If you were watching last week, you will remember that the show looked at
advertising: how much of it there is, where it’s done, and who is being targeted. In
particular, we looked at the growing trend towards advertising in schools.
A: We had a lot of e-mails and phone calls in response to that program. Here’s Edna
Sullivan, from Huntington, West Virginia:
C: I don’t mind a dvertising on billboards and bus shelters, and I’ve gotten used to
seeing ads on lampposts, and trashcans, and supermarket floors and elevators and all
the rest of it. But I was very upset by some of the advertising that you showed in
places of natural beauty, like the billboards in the desert. It looks awful to have
advertising in places like that. Our landscape is a precious resource, and I don’t think
it should be spoiled by advertising.

B: For a different point of view, let’s read an e-mail we received from Robert Bianchi
in New York. He said, “Companies have to attract customers in order to survive. That
is the nature of our economy. Successful businesses are the ones that know how to do
that. No matter how good your product is, if you can’t attract customers you won’t
succeed. We should remember that without advertising, many companies, and the
jobs that they provide, would simply not exist, and we’d all pay a lot more for the
products and services we take for granted.”
A: The segment on advertising in schools generated a lot of responses. Here’s Victor
Rodriguez, from Albany, New York.
D: I am shocked a t how much marketing is geared toward . . . purposely geared
toward young children that are just too young to know that . . . that they’re being
marketed to. I’m a parent, and I can’t even allow my children to watch network
TV stations because of all the commercials. It just encourages them to want the latest
toy or whatever. Another thing, I am concerned about the advertising that’s turning up
in our local elementary school. It’s in my kids’ schoolbooks, posters on the walls, and
school lunches, for example . I think it’s wrong. School is not the place for advertising.
B: Laura Wellman, a high school studént from Boulder Colorado, disagrees. She says
in an e-mail, “I don’t have a problem with advertising in schools. As a teenager, I’m
surrounded by advertising all the time, but I don’t necessarily buy the products that
are advertised. A couple of extra ads on the drink machines or on the school bus really
wouldn’t make any difference to me. I probably wouldn’t even notice them. If a
company wants to sponsor our soccer team in exchange for their name on our shirts,
that’s fine with us.”
A: Finally, here’s an e -mail from Sarah Cohen from Baltimore. She says, “I would
like to have seen more specific guidelines for parents on how to help children deal with
the thousands of commercial messages that they face every day. Teenagers in particular
are very influenced by advertising. They should be taught to be more critical of the
advertising that they encounter, to ask pointed questions about the products, and
above all not to believe everything that they see in an ad.”
B: And with that thought, we’ll leave you until next week. Thank you for watching,
and remember to send your comments on this week’s program . . .
C:

D Focus on the Listening Skill

Exercise 1 (p. 75)
1 . I am shocked at how much marketing is geared toward . . . purposely geared
toward young children, that are just too young to know that . . . that they’re being
marketed to.
2 . I’m a parent, and I can’t even allow my children to watch network TV stations
because of all the commercials . . . it just encourages them to want the latest toy or
whatever.
3 . Another thing, I am concerned about the advertising that’s turning up in our
local elementary school. It’s in my kids’ schoolbooks,
posters on the walls, and school lunches, for example . I think it’s wrong. School is
not the place for advertising.

Exercise 3 (p. 75)

1 . Companies have to attract customers in order to survive. That is the nature of our
economy.
2 . Successful businesses are the ones that know how to do that. No matter how
good your product is, if you can’t attract customers, you won’t succeed.
3 . We should remember that without advertising, many companies, and the jobs that
they provide, would simply not exist, and we’d all pay a lot more for the products
and services we take for granted.