Advertisements

A. Bring a few color advertisements to your next class.

B. Take a good look at the pictures. Then discuss these questions with a partner. Use the expressions in the box below to help you.

Useful expressions

Is it a good advertisement?

1. Product
What product (or service) is the ad promoting? Which company?

2. Logo
What does the logo look like? Describe its color, shape, size and contents. What does the logo represent?
Look at the picture. Can you see evidence of the logo in the picture? Where?

3. Picture
Are there any people in the picture? Are they male or female? How old are they? What do they look like? What are they wearing? What are they doing? How do the people look?
Is the product in the picture? How many times? Where? What else can you see in the picture?

C. Discuss your conclusions.

1. What kind of people is the advertisement aiming at?

2. What is the company offering the customer - in addition to the product? (examples: safety, happiness, comfort, freedom, a different lifestyle, money, a different self-image)

3. What do you think of the ad? Would you like to buy the product?

Teacher's notes

Discussion is the main aim of this activity. If students or you have not been able to find a range of adverts then there are some possible choices on the Web. It might also be interesting to compare the different styles of advert from country to country or continent to continent, or to use different adverts for similar products.
Try to make this activity as free speaking as possible.
You could also divide the class into groups to discuss questions B1-3 and get them to report back before going on to the conclusions.