Alternate Ads

Have students access the student chapter Alternate Ads, then look at the three ads in the Image Slider and answer the questions in the Structure Strip. (If you prefer, you can do this as a whole-class activity.)

Take up the questions:

What does each of these ads say about the product?

Make sure the point is raised that very little is said about the product itself in any of these ads, and that in the case of the James Bond image you might not even be aware that it’s an ad.

What does each of these ads say about the brand being advertised?

(If students aren’t clear on the difference between a product and a brand, explain that a brand is the name of a company or a group of products, like Nike or Apple, while a product is a specific thing being sold such as a particular Nike shoe or one model of iPhone.)

The specific answers don’t really matter, but students will likely say that the first ad is saying Vaio computers are cool (James Bond uses them), Doritos is progressive and Lait D’Homme is funny or cheeky (the ad is making fun of other ads that appeal to customers’ masculinity.)

Explain to students that these ads are an example of soft-selling: advertising used to make people know and like a brand rather than telling them specific things about a product (called a hard sell.)

Have students access the student chapter Alternate Ad Types and read through the four soft-selling techniques.