Class 7 - Social Science : Social And Political Life II
Chapter 7 : Understanding Advertising
Top Block 1
1. Look at the two advertisements given below and tell in the table that follow.
| Top Taste Daal | Care Soap | |
|---|---|---|
| What are the advertisements selling? | ||
| How do they describe the product? | ||
| What is the text trying to say? | ||
| What do the pictures convey? | ||
| Would you want to buy these products after seeing the advertisements? |
| Top Taste Daal | Care Soap | |
|---|---|---|
| What are the advertisements selling? | Daal | Soap |
| How do they describe the product? | Top Taste Daal | Express your love afresh |
| What is the text trying to say? | Guests should be served this. | Children should be given best care. |
| What do the pictures convey? | Hospitality of a host | Love of a mother |
| Would you want to buy these products after seeing the advertisements? | Yes | Yes |
2. Do you think there is a problem in using the image of the mother as the only person who takes care of the child on the Care Soap, advertisement?
Answer : I don’t think there is any problem. Mother is undoubtedly the only person in the family who takes the greatest care of her child.
3. Observe the advertisements given below and answer the questions that follow:
(b) Who is this advertisement talking to and who is leaving out?
(c) If you have money to buy these products, how would you feel when you see these advertisements? If you do not have money, then how would you feel?
Answer : (a)When I use this brand I feel exalted.
(b) This advertisement is talking to those who can afford to buy this brand. It is leaving out those who belong to the poor lot and earn their livelihood with great difficulty.
(c) If I have money to buy these products, I would feel proud when I see these advertisements. But if I do not have money, I would feel depressed.
4. Observe the advertisement given below and answer the questions that follow:
(b) What is the message that each social advertisement is trying to get across?
(c) Having read about diarrhoea epidemic in the chapter on State Government,
Answer : (a) Here are two social advertisements. In the first advertisement the target audience is the disabled children. In the next advertisement the target audience is common mass.
(b) Freedom is birthright to the disabled children also. Unless they get education, this freedom won’t come to them. Hence, they have every right to get education.
Railway runs faster than us. Hence, we should not dare to cross the railway crossing when the train is coming.
- Advertisement No. 1
- Visual — Display of furniture items
- Text — Quality, brand, discount ,
(a) Advertisement No. 2
- Visual — Display of CCTV
- Text — Features, Quality, Availability
(b) People can afford best things at cheaper price.
(c) Advertisement No. 1. This advertisement is speaking to the middle class people and is leaving out the people belonging to higher societies.
Advertisement No. 2 is speaking to the business group and is leaving out the common mass.
(d) I would feel a little bit depressed.
5. Can you explain two ways in which you think advertising affects issues of equality in a democracy?
Answer : Branded products cost much more than those sold loose. It is because they include the costs of packaging and advertising. Whatever may be the reason, it is veiy difficult almost impossible for the large majority of people to buy such costly/branded products. Only a small group of high class people, say wealthy people can afford to buy them. Here, the principle of equality is ignored. Advertising a product is a costly affair. Only large companies can get their products advertised. So far small businessmen are concerned, they find it difficult to advertise their product because their income is small. They often have to sell their products in weekly markets and neighbourhood shops. Here, also the principle of equality is marred.
6. Making an advertisement requires a lot of creativity. Let us imagine a situation in which a manufacturer has just made a new watch. She says that she wants to sell this watch to school children. She comes to your class and asks you all to create a brand name as well as an advertisement for the watch. Divide the class into small groups and each group creates an advertisement for this watch. Share it with the class.
Answer : Students should attempt it at class level. One sample answer is given below:
Mddle block 1
VERY SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
1. What do advertisements do?
Answer : They attract people’s attention to their products.
2. What do you mean by the word branding?
Answer : The naming of a product is called branding.
3. Why is the consumer confused? Or What makes the consumer confused?[V. Imp.]
Answer : Sometimes there are two or more advertisements of a similar product. This makes the consumer confused because it becomes difficult for him to differentiate one product from the other/others.
4. What do the advertisers do to convince the consumer?
Answer : They start claiming certain special values for their brand.
5. How are brand values conveyed to us?
Answer : Brand values are conveyed to us through the use of visuals and words.
6. When products are advertised by cricket heroes and film stars, we feel tempted to buy them. Why?
Answer : It is because persons whom we consider our heroes tell us that those products are worth buying.
7. Advertisements aim to get people to buy a particular brand’. What does this really mean?
Answer : It means that after we see an advertisement we should want to buy the brand
8. Why do companies show the advertisements again and again?
Answer : They do so in order to get it stick in people’s minds.
9. Under what pressure do companies show the advertisements again and again?
Answer : There are so many advertisements in the market. This creates a pressure on the companies and they start showing the advertisements again and again to make it most popular.
