📘 Part 3: Advertising and persuasion

This episode's vocabulary

Raise awareness (phrasal verb) – to make people conscious of a problem or issue. → Advertisements are designed to raise awareness about new products.

Cave to the pressure (phrasal verb) – to give in or agree to something you previously opposed because of persuasion or force. → Parents often cave to the pressure from their children and buy them the toy.

Agent of [someone] (noun phrase) – a person or thing that acts on behalf of another. → Advertising turns children into agents of advertisers.

Carrot and stick approach (idiom) – a method of persuasion using a combination of rewards (the carrot) and punishments (the stick). → Many parents use a carrot and stick approach to encourage good behaviour.

Hold sway over (phrasal verb) – to have great power or influence over someone or something. → Parents usually hold more sway over their children's actions than teachers do.

Irrelevant (adjective) – not connected with or relevant to something. → That's not to say that teachers are totally irrelevant; they just have relatively less influence.

Discourage (verb) – to prevent or try to prevent something from happening by making it difficult or by showing disapproval. → They will punish bad behavior to discourage it.

Toing and froing (noun) – a constant movement backward and forward; a lengthy and unproductive discussion. → I'm sure there's a lot of toing and froing before a parent actually buys the product.

Draw attention to (phrasal verb) – to make someone notice something. → Advertising might draw their attention to alternative options for things.

Give in (phrasal verb) – to finally agree to what someone wants after refusing for a period of time. → The children kept asking until their parents gave in.

Questions and Answers

Maria: How do advertisements persuade people?

Rory: I think the main ways are usually just raising awareness about how products might improve someone's life and maybe also by making them fear what will happen if they don't buy them, which is a bit sad, but it seems to work very well with a lot of people.

Maria: What impact does advertising have on children and their parents?

Rory: Well, when it comes to the kids, it seems like it just makes them go on at their parents about the products until they cave to the pressure and buy the thing, or things. So it turns children into agents of advertisers, which is also very disappointing. As for the parents, it might draw their attention to alternative options for things. But it could just as well frighten them into thinking that if they don't have the item, their children will suffer in some way.

Maria: What advice should young people follow?

Rory: Well, ideally, good advice. Though how that looks probably varies from culture to culture. In mine, it usually includes things like working hard, respecting people, and following rules. These usually go a long way to keeping them out of trouble.

Maria: What are some good ways to persuade children?

Rory: I don't know, really. I'm not a parent. But it seems most parents follow the sort of carrot and stick approach. So they'll offer rewards for good behavior and encourage it to happen more, and they will punish bad behavior to discourage it.

Maria: Who do children listen to more, their parents or their teachers?

Rory: I imagine their parents, since they spend the most time with them, and so they probably hold more sway over their actions. That's not to say that teachers are totally irrelevant, they just have relatively less influence.

Maria: What do parents often persuade children to do?

Rory: Well, ideally, the right thing, though, again, what the right things look like is obviously open to interpretation. It could be following the household rules or various instructions, or simply just not doing something annoying.

Maria: Thank you, Rory, for your answers.

Discussion

Maria: Here, dear listener, we talk about advertisements. So advertisements, or adverts, or ads. They persuade people, they make people do something, usually buy something. And advertisements raise awareness of their products. And very often advertisements...

Rory: They draw the attention to something.

Maria: Draw their attention, yes, to the products. And also they use people's fear. So advertisements sometimes show what will happen if people don't buy this product. They make people fear what could happen.

Rory: They fear missing out. They fear the bad things happening.

Maria: It does work very well with people, because we have this fear of missing out. Advertising is an industry. So, we have advertisements like TV advertisements, TV adverts, but we also talk about advertising. No article. So advertising does have an impact on children, or advertising has an influence on children, on their parents. Or you can say advertising affects children and their parents.

If the question is about children and parents, you can start off with, "when it comes to the kids..." "As for the parents..." See, so it helps coherence. You are organizing your response in a logical way. When it comes to... As for... No, don't do it in the exam, obviously, dear listener, right? Advertising makes children go to their parents. Obviously, right?

Rory: Well, probably if it's well-done advertising, which is not necessarily good for people's relationships, but still.

Maria: And here Rory uses a nice verb, cave. Usually we use "cave in", to agree to something, to cave in. So when a child asks for a toy, they start asking, begging parents to get them this toy, crying, making a scandal out of it.

Rory: Screaming, annoying...

Maria: Yes. And parents usually cave in, so they agree, right? Or here Rory said, parents cave to the pressure. Parents cave to the pressure of their children. And parents buy the toy.

Rory: They give in.

Maria: They give in, yes. And advertising draws parents' attention to different options for things. And again, use the fear of missing out. If you don't get this item, your children will suffer. If you don't get it, everybody will die. So you should buy this pinky yoga mat.

Rory: And so by doing this, the children become agents of the advertisers. But this just means they are working for them.

Maria: But not, they are not literally agents, but they just see the ads, they want the product, they go to their parents, parents get it.

Rory: Well, that's how the advertisers think it works. I'm sure there's a lot of toing and froing in the meantime.

Maria: Careful with the word "advice". So we say young people should follow good advice, not "an advice", but they follow advice. And usually it's about working hard, respecting people, following the rules, and keeping out of trouble. To persuade their children, parents usually follow a carrot and stick approach.

Rory: But that just means punish and persuade. Or persuade and punish.

Maria: Yes, carrot is something good and stick is something bad. So it's an idiom, which means a system in which you are rewarded for some actions and threatened with punishment for others. Parents usually use the carrot and stick approach. And they often reward for good behavior. So parents often offer rewards for good behavior. They give rewards, they give praise, maybe money, maybe some presents for good behavior and punish children's bad behavior to discourage it. So they encourage good behavior and discourage bad behavior.

A very common question, parents or teachers? Well, it's the parents. The first place goes to parents. The Oscar goes to parents, right? And teachers come second. And Rory also tells us that children spend more time with their parents. That's why children listen to parents more than teachers. And parents hold more sway over children's actions.

Rory: Have more influence.

Maria: Influence over something.

Rory: Yes.

Maria: So sway means influence?

Rory: Power. Yes. Subtle power.

Maria: Control or influence, it's quite formal. For example, her parents no longer have much sway over her. So her parents don't have much control or influence over her. So to hold sway over somebody's actions or over somebody. And you can say, usually parents have or hold more sway over their children. I don't mean that teachers are totally irrelevant. So teachers do have a part to play. They are important, but have relatively less influence. So teachers have less influence or less impact.

Rory: That just means by comparison.

Maria: Parents usually persuade their children to do the right thing. Well, the right thing according to what they think is right.

Rory: Yes, it's never the right thing according to what the children want.

Maria: Yes, it's according to the parents. "I think this is right." But usually they persuade their children to follow household rules, to clean the house, to do homework, to follow instructions.

Rory: To blow their nose.

Maria: Yes, to stay healthy, to study very hard. And parents usually persuade their children to do what they tell them to do. And could be also some exercise, some sports. Yes, but usually it's about cleaning and education, doing the homework, learning something non-stop. So this is all the dreadful things. I haven't seen parents who persuade their children to play computer games, to eat fast food, to go relax, to sleep more.

Rory: Chill out, yes.

Maria: Yes, persuade their children to eat ice cream in winter, to invite their friends and have a party. Sweet. Thank you very much for listening.

Rory: Hopefully we have persuaded you to use the band nine grammar and vocabulary.

Maria: Bye.

Rory: Bye.

Maria: Bye.