Advertising

Whether it is in print or on television, radio, or billboards, advertising profoundly (1)_____ our life. The ads we see, hear, and smell (in the case of open-and-sniff perfume inserts in magazines) (2)_____ how we feel and what we think about a wide range of products. Companies pay a lot of money to persuade us that their products are the best.

Advertising has a long history in North America. As early as the 1600s, ads were used to (3)_____ English settlers to the Colonies. According to historian Daniel Boorstin, these brochures (4)_____ “hopeful overstatements, half-truths, and downright lies…”

In the 1700s famous (5)_____ were involved in the advertising business, (6)_____ them Benjamin Franklin, who ran ads in his publications. And with the boom in mass-circulation magazines, the advertising became the powerful force it is today. Television arrived in the 1940s and (7)_____ a new, action-packed advertising medium.

Creating a good ad isn’t as (8)_____ as it might seem. One key is to find the right spokes person. An effective approach is to have the company president speak. Still another option is to create (9)_____ characters, such as the Speedy Alka-Seltzer fellow, or an animated parrot (Gillette).

A memorable slogan is helpful as well: “I can’t (10)_____ I ate the whole thing”; “Where is the beef?”; “You deserve a break today”…